Cochrane is for anyone interested in using high-quality information to make health decisions. Whether you are a doctor or nurse, patient or carer, researcher or funder, Cochrane evidence provides a powerful tool to enhance your healthcare knowledge and decision making.
Cochrane’s 10,000 members and over 28,000 supporters come from more than 130 countries, worldwide. Our volunteers and contributors are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, and people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere. Our global independent network gathers and summarizes the best evidence from research to help you make informed choices about treatment and we have been doing this for 25 years.
We do not accept commercial or conflicted funding. This is vital for us to generate authoritative and reliable information, working freely, unconstrained by commercial and financial interests.
Our Strategy to 2020 aims to put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making all over the world.
Our vision
Our vision is a world of improved health where decisions about health and health care are informed by high-quality, relevant and up-to-date synthesized research evidence.
Our mission
Our mission is to promote evidence-informed health decision-making by producing high-quality, relevant, accessible systematic reviews and other synthesized research evidence.
Our work is internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care.
What we do
Cochrane exists so that healthcare decisions get better; and our Strategy to 2020 aims to put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making all over the world. It organizes our work around four goals:
Goal 1: Producing evidence
To produce high-quality, relevant, up-to-date systematic reviews and other synthesized research evidence to inform health decision making. There are now over 7,500 Cochrane Systematic Reviews which we publish in the Cochrane Library. We also play a key role in developing new methods in evidence synthesis.
Goal 2: Making our evidence accessible
We want to make Cochrane evidence accessible and useful to everybody, everywhere in the world. We translate the Plain Language Summaries of Cochrane Reviews into 14 languages, work closely with consumers and patients to ensure our content is easily understandable, and make the Cochrane Library available freely available to 3.66 billion people around the world.
Goal 3: Advocating for evidence:
We aim to make Cochrane the ‘home of evidence’ to inform health decision making, build greater recognition of our work, and become the leading advocate for evidence-informed health care.
Goal 4: Building an effective and sustainable organization:
We aspire to be a diverse, inclusive, and transparent international organization that effectively harnesses the enthusiasm and skills of our contributors, is guided by our principles, governed accountably, managed efficiently, and makes optimal use of our resources.
You can read more about Strategy to 2020, and our specific plans and targets for 2018, here.
How do we do this?
There is no one place or office that is 'Cochrane'. Our global network of members and supporters work together to achieve our strategic goals and are usually affiliated to one or more Cochrane Groups based on their interests, expertise, and/or geographical location. Find out more about our organizational structure.
Our principles
Cochrane's work is based on ten key principles:
- Collaboration
by fostering global co-operation, teamwork, and open and transparent communication and decision-making. - Building on the enthusiasm of individuals
by involving, supporting and training people of different skills and backgrounds. - Avoiding duplication of effort
by good management, co-ordination and effective internal communications to maximize economy of effort. - Minimizing bias
through a variety of approaches such as scientific rigour, ensuring broad participation, and avoiding conflicts of interest. - Keeping up-to-date
by a commitment to ensure that Cochrane Reviews are maintained through identification and incorporation of new evidence. - Striving for relevance
by promoting the assessment of health questions using outcomes that matter to people making choices in health and health care. - Promoting access
by wide dissemination of our outputs, taking advantage of strategic alliances, and by promoting appropriate access models and delivery solutions to meet the needs of users worldwide. - Ensuring quality
by applying advances in methodology, developing systems for quality improvement, and being open and responsive to criticism. - Continuity
by ensuring that responsibility for reviews, editorial processes, and key functions is maintained and renewed. - Enabling wide participation
in our work by reducing barriers to contributing and by encouraging diversity.
Why do we do this?
Our mission to provide accessible, credible information to support informed decision-making has never been more important or useful for improving global health. In the Internet age, people have much greater access to health information, but little way of knowing whether that information is accurate and unbiased. We do not accept commercial or conflicted funding. This is vital for us to generate authoritative and reliable information, working freely, unconstrained by commercial and financial interests.
For more information on our conflict of interest policy, click here.