Brazilian Cochrane Centre turns 15

The Brazilian Cochrane Centre (BCC) is the largest Cochrane entity in South America. It was established in 1996 and in 2011 celebrates its 15th anniversary.

The BCC is one of 14 Cochrane Centres spread around the world. These Centres provide a focus for Cochrane activities in a particular regional or linguistic area: they provide information, training and support to individuals and entities working within the Collaboration or wishing to do so, and offer the healthcare and research community a public point of contact for The Cochrane Collaboration.

                                                                                                                      Sao Paolo by night

The BCC was instrumental in securing free access to The Cochrane Library, first in Brazil and later throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, working in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization and the Brazilian Coordinating Agency for the Improvement of Higher Education Professionals. The BCC has also provided research and training resources to more than 200 graduate students of health-related programs, supporting students and teachers to produce Cochrane Systemic Reviews that have contributed to masters´ and doctoral theses, as well as professorship degrees.

The current scope of work at the BCC focuses primarily on providing training and information in the fundamentals of preparing Cochrane systematic reviews, as well as supporting review production more directly. In addition to a free online course (in Portuguese) that provides basic information and concepts on how to prepare systematic reviews and conduct meta-analyses, the BCC has for the last four years been offering a year-long Continued Medical Education course on Evidence-Based Healthcare via videoconference. This course, which is nationally recognised, is freely available and accessible to remote regions of the country, thanks to a successful partnership between the BCC, the Brazilian Ministry of Health and the research department of a private hospital.

The BCC’s work in other areas includes conducting systematic reviews commissioned by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, following Cochrane methodology and standards. The federal government estimates that these reviews save the country´s public health system an average of 5 billion US dollars per year. Other initiatives include providing continuous education and training to the public servants of the Brazilian Health Technology Assessment Network, and producing and broadcasting a weekly one-hour television show, broadcasting nationwide and presenting information on scientific evidence relevant to consumers, and healthcare and legal professionals.

Left to right: Tamara Melnik (Psychologist, PhD. Researcher and Professor), Mauro Ishioka (Secretariat), Alan Pedrosa Viegas de Carvalho (Physiotherapist. Researcher), Rachel Riera (MD, PhD. Researcher, Professor and Training Coordinator), Alvaro Nagib Atallah (MD, PhD. Director and Professor), Maria Regina Torloni (MD, PhD. Researcher, Professor and International Relations Coordinator), Cristiane Rufino de Macedo (Dentist, PhD. Researcher and TSC), Edina Mariko Koga Silva (MD, PhD. Researcher and Professor), and Maria Stella Peccin (Physiotherapist, PhD. Researcher and Professor)

In 2007, the BCC organized the first Cochrane Colloquium ever held in Latin America, bringing together more than 800 participants from dozens of countries. This high-profile event contributed to bringing The Cochrane Collaboration to the attention of Brazilian consumers and health professionals. In recognition of the BCC’s work and contributions to the Brazilian healthcare system, the president of Brazil (Luis Inácio Lula da Silva) visited the BCC in 2010. On March 29, 2011 the Brazilian Ministry of Health issued a national ordinance to standardize clinical practice guidelines which states that Cochrane Reviews should be considered as the main source of evidence for the process of producing clinical guidelines in Brazil.