New teaching and research activities of the Brazilian Cochrane Center

Article type
Authors
Carvalho MR1, Fioretti BTS1, Torloni MR1, Riera R1, Martimbianco ALC1, Grande AJ1, Porfírio GJM1, Costa MB1, Torres MFS1, Silva V1, Costa CS1, Silva EMK1, Macedo CR1, Melnik T1, Puga MES1, Atallah A1
1Brazilian Cochrane Centre, Brazil
Abstract
Background: The Brazilian Cochrane Centre (BCC) has increased its efforts to disseminate the culture of evidence-based health (EBH) to the general public.

Objectives: To report new activities implemented by the BCC.

Methods: Over the last months, volunteer collaborators of the BCC have held meetings to implement, upscale or improve the activities described below.

Results: • Basic Workshop: monthly, 1-day activity that introduces 20 students to the Cochrane Collaboration and how to develop systematic reviews (SR). • Advanced Workshop: monthly, 1-day workshop that helps 20 participants to advance their SRs, guiding them through title registration and protocol development. • Online course: introduces students to the main concepts of a SR (12 modules). • Improving translations: aiming to increase the proficiency of volunteers involved in the Portuguese translation of Cochrane abstracts and Plain Language Summaries • Beginners’ Manual: based on our online course and the Cochrane Handbook, this booklet, written in Portuguese, guides researchers through the main steps involved in a Cochrane Sr. • Cochrane abstracts and Plain Language Summaries. • Handsearch: volunteers are being trained to manually review Brazilian journals not indexed looking for trials to be uploaded to CENTRAL. • New workshops: based on the demand of our workshop participants, the team is planning new workshops: Introduction to Clinical Research, Basic Biostatistics, Statistics for Metanalyses, Critical appraisal, Assessing risk of bias, Cochrane Library for consumers, Using Revman and GRADE. • Improving teaching: The team is being trained to improve communication and didactic performance to upgrade the quality of our workshops.

Conclusions: These activities are promoting increased visibility and interaction of the BCC with different publics, more participants in our workshops, recognition of the BCC as a research center and a highly motivated and qualified team of professionals capable of both performing SR and transmitting their knowledge and experience to others.