Applicability of Reviews and Trials
Presenters: Paul Glasziou, Dianne O'Connell, Joseph Lau, David Henry
Type of Workshop: Discussion:
Target Audience:
Aims
Building Cochrane Inventories
Presenters: Robert Hayward, David Badger, Monica Fischer
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Cochrane Centre Administrators and staff and members of the Cochrane Informatics Group
Aims
To review problems and possible solutions in building, maintaining and disseminating registries of people, projects (review groups, networks, methods groups, etc) and products (position papers, reviews, protocols, handbooks, software, etc).
The Cochrane Collaboration increasingly needs to integrate and link its membership and product databases. Collaboration members and clients require access to subsets of this information from multiple locations and time-zones world-wide. The Cochrane Informatics Group has developed prototype systems that can help to achieve these ends.
This workshop will review the nature of information stored in past and present Cochrane databases and inventories, including Client Manager, Review Manager, lists of hand-searched journals, and registries of controlled trials. Object-oriented approaches to data management will be described. Alternative methods of exchanging information between different databases and software products will be considered.
The workshop will combine didactic presentation (covering basic concepts in information management) with practical demonstration and hands-on experience. Participants will use the Health Information Resource Executive software to build a demonstration Inventory of a Cochrane review group.
Placebo Effects in RCTs and Consequences for Systematic Reviews
Presenters: Jos Kleijnen, Peter Gotzsche
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Anyone interested in this topic
Aims
A research agenda to investigate these phenomena. The workshop would consist of an introduction of 30-40 minutes followed by a discussion.
Outcomes
The making of a draft report.
Identifying and Registering Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials (Introductory)
Presenters: Carol Lefebvre, Steven McDonald
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Administrators of Collaborative Review Groups (CRGs) and others who have a responsibility for, or an interest in, developing and maintaining specialized registers of trials on behalf of CRGs. Priority will be given to registered CRGs, and those involved in convening meetings for possible CRGs. This workshop is aimed at those new to, or with little experience of, developing and maintaining registers of reports of trials.
Aims
The process of conducting systematic reviews is facilitated by access to a comprehensive and regularly updated specialized register of reports of RCTs. The workshop will provide a forum for participants to discuss issues relating to identifying and registering trials, and will provide an opportunity to offer technical guidance in these areas. It will concentrate specifically on methods to ensure that registers are as comprehensive as possible in respect of sources searched (ie journal handsearching and electronic database searching), and methods to ensure that registers are updated as efficiently as possible.
Conversion of Reviews Into the Cochrane Format
Presenters: Cynthia Mulrow
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience
Aims
Outcomes
SECT: A New Instrument for Assessing the Strength of Evidence of Clinical Trials
Presenters: Franz Porzsolt
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: People with experience in appraisal of clinical trials
Aims
To validate an instrument (SECT) together with the workshop participants.
Outcomes
Reduction of the variance in the appraisal of clinical trials.
Looking for Evidence Through Advanced Meta-analytical Techniques for Repeated Measurements; the Case of Aldose Reductase Inhibitors in the Treatment of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
Presenters: F Carinci, A Nicolucci, J G Graepel, J M Lachin
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Analysts/Statisticians
Aims
Editing Cochrane Reviews
Presenters: Jeremy Anderson, Clive Adams
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: People who currently edit Cochrane reviews or who are considering doing so, preferably the former.
Aims
The workshop will be an informal discussion of the pleasures and pains of editing Cochrane reviews led by two editors of the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group, Jeremy Anderson and Clive Adams.
The primary orientation of the workshop will be reflective rather than instructive. That is, it will provide an opportunity to share the experiences of review group editors rather than to produce a 'how to edit' kit.
A secondary objective is to gather information about the operation of editorial groups to inform future editions of whatever replaces the Cochrane Handbook.
Outcomes
An opportunity for review group editors to share experiences.
Identification of strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to editorial responsibility within review groups.
The Nuts and Bolts of Setting up a Refereeing System for CRGs
Presenters: Lisa Bero, Drummond Rennie, Emma Harvey
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: CRG editors and administrators
Aims
To help CRGs develop processes for identifying referees, coordinating the collection and response to criticism, maintaining databases of referees, and studying the outcomes of the refereeing process. Part of the workshop will be devoted to answering questions from the participants about how to implement a refereeing system that works.
Outcomes
Efficient and standardised procedures for the pre-publication refereeing of Cochrane Reviews.
Sources of Complexity: Implications for Conducting and Interpreting Systematic Reviews
Presenters: Jeremy Grimshaw, Darryl Wieland, Peter Langhorne
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Cochrane Reviewers in areas where issues of complexity relating to study populations, intervention, study design (including multiple outcomes) influence the conduct and interpretation of systematic reviews.
Aims
This training workshop aims to:
Outcomes
Participants will have fun, be intellectually stimulated and challenge the facilitators. In addition, participants will have a greater understanding about sources of complexity, implications for the conduct and interpretation of systematic reviews and practical strategies for dealing with complexity.
Quality Control in Handsearching
Presenters: Karen Robinson, Jean-Pierre Boissel
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Those responsible for training and coordinating handsearchers in Collaborative Review Groups, Cochrane Centres and other entities
Aims
To bring together those involved in handsearching journals (and those likely to be involved in the future) to discuss what quality control is being done at present, and to develop guidelines on how this important aspect should be approached.
Outcomes
The task of handsearching the medical literature is one that should only be carried out once, and thus this should be as complete and as accurate as possible. The control of the quality for this task should therefore guarantee this.
Special Concerns of Collaborators in Developing Countries
Presenters: Sayomporn Sirinavin, Meenu Singh
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: People from developing countries and anyone who can contribute to discussion on this topic
Aims
To share experiences, problems and solutions in Collaboration from developing countries.
Outcomes
Some solutions for Cochrane Collaborators from developing countries.
Providing Training for Reviewers
Presenters: Lelia Duley, Bernie Towler
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Providers of training for reviewers, reviewers and editors.
Aims
To review the experience in planning, conducting and participating in training activities for reviewers, to identify immediate and future training needs for reviewers, and to explore ways in which those needs can be met.
Outcomes
Report summarising the discussion and outlining recommendations and action points.
Consumer Participation in the Cochrane Collaboration
Presenters: Hilda Bastian, Christina Funnell, Jean Jones
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Consumers and members of the Collaboration wanting to involve consumers.
Aims
To review the current experience of consumers in the Collaboration and identify ways of improving consumers participation.
Outcomes
Increasing participants' knowledge of ways consumers are, and could be, involved in the Collaboration.
Establishing a Review Group
Presenters: Iain Chalmers, Alessandro Liberati
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Cochrane Centre Directors, Staff at the editorial bases of existing CRGs, Convenors of exploratory meetings for new CRGs
Aims
To provide a forum for discussing:
1. the process leading up to registration of a Cochrane CRG
2. the factors which may promote or hinder successful functioning of CRGs
Outcomes
1. mutual education among participants about ways of promoting successful functioning of collaborative review groups
2. information to help in further revisions of the material currently included in Section II of the Handbook
Collaborative Word Processing: Creating Shared Electronic Documents
Presenters: Robert Hayward, David Badger
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Cochrane Editors, Authors and Publishers
Aims
To introduce problems and solutions in Cochrane document design, writing, editing and dissemination; with special attention to challenges and opportunities in electronic publications.
The Cochrane Collaboration increasingly depends upon multi-author efforts to produce information resources that can be maintained and distributed in a variety of formats, including paper and electronic media. To improve the quality of these resources while conserving the effort to produce and sustain them, new approaches to document design are advocated for Cochrane authors and editors. The Cochrane Handbook results from multiple authors, editors and programmers and is an excellent example of how a single source document, with links to a bibliographic database, can be developed and distributed.
The following topics will be addressed: Document personae, Exposing structure, Managing references, Tables and figures, Hypertext types and techniques, Version control, Multiple-media (paper, disk, Internet) dissemination.
The workshop will combine didactic presentation with demonstration and hands-on experience. A demonstration WordPerfect document will be edited, marked up, and prepared for paper and electronic dissemination. Microsoft Word, Reference Manager, Internet Assistant, and the Health Information Resource Executive will be used.
Outcomes
This workshop will address a broad range of information problems associated with the preparation and dissemination of Cochrane information resources. Through demonstration and practice, workshop participants will uncover the architecture of a Cochrane document, will learn basic principles of document design and mark up, will appreciate the pros and cons of alternative approaches to bibliographic database maintenance, and will learn how to create links between various Cochrane Information Resources.
Meta-analysis of Diagnostic Tests
Presenters: Paul Glasziou, Les Irwig
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Those interested in doing their own meta-analysis of diagnostic tests
Aims
The workshop would introduce people to the methods required for doing a systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy, namely:
Outcomes
Understanding and skills in doing diagnostic test meta-analysis.
Assessing the Quality of Trials
Presenters: Alejandro Jadad, David Moher
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Reviewers, methodologist representatives
Aims
Outcomes
Identifying and Registering Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials (Advanced)
Presenters: Carol Lefebvre, Steven McDonald
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Administrators of Collaborative Review Groups (CRGs) and others who have a responsibility for, or an interest in, developing and maintaining specialized registers of trials on behalf of CRGs. Priority will be given to registered CRGs, and those involved in convening meetings for possible CRGs. This workshop is aimed at those with some experience of developing and maintaining registers of reports of trials.
Aims
The process of conducting systematic reviews is facilitated by access to a comprehensive and regularly updated specialized register of reports of RCTs. The workshop will provide a forum for participants to discuss issues relating to identifying and registering trials, and will provide an opportunity to offer technical guidance in these areas. It will concentrate specifically on methods to ensure that registers are as comprehensive as possible in respect of sources searched (ie journal handsearching and electronic database searching), and methods to ensure that registers are updated as efficiently as possible.
An Introduction to Statistical Methods for Pooling Data
Presenters: Dianne O'Connell, Jon Deeks
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: People carrying out reviews and using RevMan who would like to know about the data analysis/data display facilities in RevMan; people who are new to systematic reviews and want to learn about the statistical issues related to pooling data.
Aims
An introduction to meta-analytical methods will be presented including: the rationale for using meta-analysis to combine study results; the choice of measure of treatment effect (odds ratio, relative risk, absolute risk, weighted mean difference, standardised mean difference); basic methods for combining measures of treatment effect from studies; test for heterogeneity and choice of fixed versus random effect models. Methods will be demonstrated using RevMan.
The Cochrane Collaboration and the Internet
Presenters: David Badger
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Those who have had little or no experience of using the Internet
Aims
This will be a training workshop aimed at those who have had little or no experience of using the Internet. It will cover email, file transfer, and World Wide Web applications with the main focus being "How can we use this to enhance our work in the Collaboration?" rather than focussing on the technology itself.
Advanced Issues of Complexity in Conducting and Interpreting Reviews
Presenters: Jeremy Grimshaw, Peter Langhorne, Darryl Wieland, Finn Borlum Kristensen
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Cochrane Reviewers in areas where issues of complexity relating to study populations, intervention, study design (including multiple outcomes) influence the conduct and interpretation of systematic reviews.
Aims
To provide a forum to discuss issues relating to complexity in the conduct of trials and systematic reviews.
Outcomes
Participants will have fun, be intellectually stimulated and challenge the facilitators.
Advanced Training Workshop in Review Manager (RevMan) and the Review Process
Presenters: Emma Harvey, Andy Oxman
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Priority will be given to CRG Administrators and others involved in supporting reviewers using RevMan. This workshop is aimed at individual who already have some experience in supporting reviewers using RevMan.
Aims
This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to discuss the key features of the RevMan software and in particular, its place in the review process as a whole. It will provide them with an opportunity to ask questions about developing reviews, including key methodological concepts, discuss common problems they encounter and how to deal with them, exchange experience and brainstorm about the best way to provide support to reviewers (particularly with respect to administrators' role).
Indexing Cochrane Information Entities
Presenters: William Hersh
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Those interested in indexing and registries
Aims
Evidence-based medicine will not be a reality until developers and users of evidence-based products can access them in an easy manner. The main goal of this workshop is for members of the Coding and Classification Methods Group (CCMG) and other interested Collaboration members to continue working towards developing an approach for indexing Cochrane information entities, including reviews, trials, and reviewer interests. In this workshop we plan to present indexing work already done by the CCMG and discuss how this work can be expanded to meet the needs of the entire collaboration. We will also discuss how CCMG efforts can be coordinated with other efforts, such as development of the parent database and the registry of clinical trials.
Introductory Training Workshop in Review Manager (RevMan) and the Review Process
Presenters: Beverley Shea
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Priority will be given to CRG Administrators and others involved in supporting reviewers using RevMan. This workshop is aimed at individuals with little or no experience in supporting reviewers using RevMan.
Aims
This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to become familiar with key features of the software developed by the Collaboration to help reviewers prepare systematic reviews (RevMan). Participants will be able to gain some hands-on experience with data input, and they will begin to learn how to answer frequently asked questions posed by reviewers to staff at the editorial bases of collaborative review groups. The workshop should provide an open, interactive environment for questions and answers intended to facilitate learning.
Dealing With Bias in Trial Identification and Prospective Meta-analysis
Presenters: John Simes
Type of Workshop
Target Audience:
Aims
Outcomes
Individual Patient Data Reviews
Presenters: Lesley Stewart, Mike Clarke
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Those wishing to do an IPD review
Aims
To provide practical guidance on how to carry out an IPD review.
Outcomes
By the end of the workshop, participants should be able to decide both whether their review should be based on IPD and, if so, how best to do this.
Using Pro-Cite
Presenters: Ben Thornley, Clive Adams
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience:
Aims
Evaluation of the Cochrane Library
Presenters: Kay Dickersin, Lisa Bero, Mark Starr, Jos Kleijnen
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Users and contributors to Library
Aims
To present the short and long term goals for the Library; to review existing elements of the Library; to share out experiences with it; and to make suggestions for future disk issues. Conveners will make short structured presentations on key elements of the Library, as a way of orienting the discussion.
Outcomes
A report to the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Committee.
Advanced Electronic Searching to Identify Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials in MEDLINE and EMBASE
Presenters: Carol Lefebvre, Steven McDonald
Type of Workshop: Training
Target Audience: Those with experience of conducting their own searches of MEDLINE
Aims
The workshop will be a combination of short presentations, demonstrations, and hands-on sessions. Participants will have the opportunity of taking away a floppy disk of the MEDLINE and EMBASE highly sensitive search strategies.
The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Cochrane Collaboration
Presenters: Alain Li Wan Po, Andrew Herxheimer
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Any contributor undertaking systematic reviews of drugs
Aims
To initiate discussions on optimal interface between the Cochrane Collaboration and the drug industry.
Outcomes
Set of recommendations and highlights of issues requiring further discussion.
Reaching Out: External Communication and Changing the Culture in Health Care
Presenters: Mark Lodge, Edward Dickinson
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: CRGs, Fields, Centres, Software Development
Aims
Outcomes
Strategic analysis of what opportunities are available to Cochrane entities to facilitate change in the prevailing non-evidence-based health care culture through external communication; what are the barriers to progress, and how they can be overcome.
Standards for the Performance of Systematic Reviews in the Perinatal Field
Presenters: Arne Ohlsson, Terri Myhr
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Perinatologists (Obstetricians/ Neonatologists)
Aims
Outcomes
Part 1 (Lecture - 1 hour) By attending this workshop the participants will be able to identify bias/errors in currently published systematic reviews of antenatal interventions to reduce perinatal/neonatal adverse outcomes - and how such bias/errors can possibly be avoided.
Part 2 (Interactive session - 1 hour) The participants will work towards a consensus on how to perform systematic reviews/meta-analyses of perinatal interventions aimed at reducing adverse perinatal outcomes.
Clinical Practice Guidelines
Presenters: Jayne Ross
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Clinicians, government and researchers
Aims
To demonstrate the process of involving different sectors of the health system in the move to evidence based decision making in health care.
Outcomes
By the end of the workshop participants will understand the benefits of being involved in developing clinical practice guidelines and how the health care sectors can collaborate in this.
Ethics and Funding Issues
Presenters: Chris Silagy, Lisa Bero
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Anyone involved with the Cochrane Collaboration who is trying to seek funding to support their activities and anyone involved as an actual or potential funder of Cochrane Collaboration activities.
Aims
To examine the draft ethical policy for the Cochrane Collaboration, particularly in relation to guidelines for seeking, and receiving, financial support and or sponsorship from non government sources, such as industry.
To explore strategies for increasing funding for Cochrane related activities without compromising the Collaboration's ethical principles.
Outcomes
Recommendations regarding acceptance, with or without modification, of the proposed ethical policy for the Cochrane Collaboration.
Suggested strategy for increasing funding for Cochrane related activities without compromising the Collaboration's ethical principles.
Evidence-based practice in Public Health: issues and progress
Presenters: Sarah Hayward, Marilyn James
Type of Workshop: Discussion
Target Audience: Practitioners, researchers, managers and policy makers in public health.
Aims
To highlight and examine key issues in promoting evidence-based public health practice.
Outcomes
This page was last updated on 18 November 1996
Comments for improvement or correction are welcome.
georg.koch@cochrane.de