The propagation of best evidence: 23 years of Cochrane Brazil workshops

Article type
Authors
Ramalho G1, Flumignan C1, Pinto AC1, Atallah A1, Saconato H1, Rocha A1, Gomes S1, Civile V1, Camara L1, Franco E1, Teixeira K1, Trevisani V1
1Evidence-Based Health Program, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) and Cochrane Brazil
Abstract
Background: in 1979, Sir Archie Cochrane wrote: "One criticism of our profession is that we do not have clinical summaries that appear and sit in a periodic fashion organized by specialties and subspecialties of all clinical trials that exist at the moment." This idea was fundamental for the beginning of Cochrane. Today, the organization has over 13,000 members and 50,000 supporters that come from more than 130 countries. In 1996, Cochrane Brazil was founded in São Paulo to help elaborate, maintain and promote high-quality systematic reviews, hoping to provide the best evidence for decision-making in health. This is one of the 13 collaboration centres and 28 extensions in Cochrane, promoting systematic review and meta-analysis workshops and conducting scientific consulting for review authors. Cochrane Brazil has already provided the country with about 200 international publications. Cochrane Brazil was a pioneer in Network Centres, which is now formed by five affiliated centres in Petrópolis-RJ, João Pessoa-PB, Amazônia-AM, Muriaé-MG and Fortaleza-CE. The workshops, scope of this study are face-to-face courses dedicated to health professionals of all areas who wish to learn how to produce systematic reviews using Cochrane methodology.

Objectives: to describe the profile of students in Cochrane Brazil workshops.

Methods and results: we compiled available data from 2013 to March 2019. Cochrane Brazil’s workshops brought almost 800 people together from areas like medicine, nursing, and dentistry from all of Brazil’s greater regions and neighbouring countries. We found that medical professionals constituted a plurality in our workshops, comprising more than 36% of its participants, followed by dentistry professionals with 14.6%. More than 49% were others professionals from physiotherapy, nursing, pharmacy, physical education, nutrition and other areas. There were also professionals from fields with no direct relation with health, for example, engineering and public relations. In relation to the Brazilian regions, most of the workshops (77%) were carried out in the southeast.

Conclusions and patient/healthcare consumer involvement: Cochrane Brazil is increasing the offer of these courses because the group believes that in a country of continental proportions like Brazil, these workshops will be fundamental in enabling more health professionals to produce health studies based on the best evidence. This, in practice, will directly impact the patients, who are end consumers of this production and will be treated according to the best available evidence. Professionals from distant regions can participate in future workshops; we intend to transmit them on electronic platforms, using technology in favour of education. Thus, Cochrane Brazil’s workshops promote knowledge for a big diversity of professional areas and regions, intending to provide the best scientific information possible.