Cochrane Clinical Answers: a retrospective of the past five years

Article type
Authors
Pettersen K1
1Wiley
Abstract
Background: Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs) were developed in partnership between Wiley and Cochrane in response to feedback from clinicians that, while they highly valued Cochrane Systematic Review evidence, the length of a Cochrane Review meant it was difficult to read and apply in a busy, time-sensitive clinical setting. CCAs are aimed at health professionals at the point of care, mimicking the way they approach information-gathering and designed to help close the evidence-to-practice implementation barrier.

Objectives: to review the growth and development of CCAs since the inception of the product.

Methods: CCAs were designed by the Wiley web team in response to a brief based on market research conducted in the USA and New Zealand by Wiley in 2012, which was augmented by feedback from the Cochrane Editorial Unit and user experience testing with practising clinicians. The website was launched in November 2013 with 100 CCAs covering 10 clinical areas and written primarily by US-based clinicians. We conducted a retrospective quantitative and qualitative analysis, reviewing content growth and changes in processes since website launch.

Results: in 2019, we have over 1900 CCAs covering clinical areas from all of the Cochrane Review Groups and written by clinicians worldwide. Our selection processes evolved over time, beginning with building core content across the clinical areas with the highest disease burden (based on hospitalization rates and visits to General/Family Practitioners), and moving to creating CCAs based on all clinically-focused practice-enhancing new and updated Cochrane Reviews. CCAs were launched as an independent website, which in 2018, with the re-platforming of the Cochrane Library, became part of the suite of databases available to all subscribers of the Cochrane Library. The Editorial and Production team has grown from a single Wiley Senior Editor and Production Assistant to a team of four Wiley-/Cochrane-based Editors, a Wiley Copy Editor, and two Wiley Production Assistants.

Conclusions: CCAs have grown into an important tool within in the Cochrane Library to inform joint clinician-patient treatment choice. In April 2019, we appointed our inaugural Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of CCAs to work alongside the EiC of the Cochrane Library and the CCA Editorial team to derive an ongoing strategy for development of CCAs and further realise our vision to make the high-quality evidence from Cochrane Reviews more accessible to a clinical audience, contributing to Cochrane’s Knowledge Translation strategy and ensuring that the evidence makes a difference to patient health.

Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: none