Researchers in the field of evidence synthesis, guideline developers and policy makershave collaboratively achieved health care recommendations, in particular those in clinical practice guidelines, which ought to be based on systematic reviews. However, best practice of collaborating and implementing this laudable goal requires further work.Better coordination between guideline developers and systematic review authors is required to efficiently use resources (e.g. avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts, delays and non-credible evidence reviews). Conducting systematic reviews with the specific purpose of utilizing them for health care recommendations can enhancemotivation of authors to conduct reviews, possibly open funding opportunities and improve the Collaboration’s interaction with other health care organizations. This, in turn, enhances the Collaboration’s profileby making sure reviews have a specific purpose. This session will explore these issues in-depth. It will be comprised of panellists addressing these specific areas and the discussion portion will focus on next steps: a) Examples of successful collaboration between systematic review authors and guideline developers and summary of challenges encountered b) What do guideline developers need (in addition to information in typical Cochrane reviews)? c) What do systematic review authors need and how can the collaboration deliver this? d) Proposal for solving the institutional barriers and challenges (two key stakeholders: Cochrane Collaboration and GIN or CTFPHC)

Target audience and level of expertise: Systematic review authors, guideline developers