In a significant step for national health research and training, Cochrane Indonesia was launched today at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta.
Cochrane’s global CEO Mark Wilson travelled from London to join Cochrane Indonesia’s Director Dr Detty Nurdiati at a formal ceremony to inaugurate the high-profile, independent research organisation’s newest centre.
‘Cochrane Indonesia is an important and active part of Cochrane’s global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers and people interested in health consisting of more than 38,000 people from 130 countries,’ Mr Wilson says. ‘And today’s launch represents the culmination of over a decade of work by Dr Detty Nurdiati and her colleagues at both Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Indonesia.’
‘Since 2004, the team has been working to increase the role and impact of high quality health evidence in daily clinical practice, in education and training, and in public policy making – particularly in the critical area of maternal and child health. Today we recognize this work and look forward to increasing our shared efforts to ensure evidence is at the very centre of health research, care and policy in Indonesia.’
Dr Nurdiati welcomed Mr Wilson’s comments and highlighted the increasing need for locally relevant and up-to-date health evidence to inform policy making and health care. ‘The successful implementation of Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional demands high quality evidence and skilled people with the capacity to gather, synthesize and use evidence. Within Cochrane Indonesia, we have the essential knowledge and expertise to meet this need,’ she said.
‘Cochrane produces gold standard health evidence that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. It is used and trusted by individuals, governments, policy-makers and major organisations around the world, from the World Health Organization to Wikipedia. Doctors, nurses, researchers and health professionals in hospitals, universities and community health clinics here in Indonesia and around the world use Cochrane evidence to underpin health decisions, policies and clinical care guidelines for patients. This is the kind of information that is critical to contemporary medicine and public health.’
‘We know that relying on a single research study to guide clinical practice or health policy can be very misleading. Instead of looking selectively at single studies, Cochrane undertakes what are called systematic reviews –these are comprehensive reviews that consider evidence from research studies from around the world. We gather and analyze all this evidence and look at how it can best be used to develop policy and effective care in Indonesia.’
To date, Cochrane evidence has been used to improve care for pregnant women and their babies, with improved guidelines introduced for the treatment of pre-eclampsia, iron supplementation and education for breastfeeding mothers. Cochrane Indonesia aims to extend this evidence based approach to maternal and child health across all areas of health.
‘We will be working with the Ministry of Health to inform policy and practice and importantly, we will continue to train current and future generations of clinicians, midwives and other health professionals in evidence based medicine,’ Dr Nurdiati said. ‘This is part of an ambitious program to make trusted health evidence more accessible to all Indonesians. To that end, we will also be translating high quality Cochrane evidence into Bahasa, so that more of our clinicians, health workers, journalists and citizens can access the information they need to make health decisions. Together, we will contribute to better health care for people from around Indonesia, and ultimately around the world.’
For all media inquiries about Cochrane Indonesia and the official launch, contact:
Dr Rima Mustafa
Phone: +62-274-560455 or +62 821 3421 6359
Email: rima.mustafa@ymail.com