CCInfo: Electronic news bulletin of The Cochrane Collaboration 11 May 2006 Contents: A. Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group now registered B. Cochrane Fellowships on the island of Ireland 2006 C. Cochrane Health Equity Field-co-registration with Campbell and name change D. Cochrane Symposium for Review Authors, 29-30 June, Adelaide, Australia E. Cochrane News - first call for submissions F. Oral Health Course in Systematic Reviews G. Members wanted for NICE Appraisal Committee H. Next issue of CCInfo XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX A. Sender: Jini Hetherington [JHetherington@cochrane.org] Subject: Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group now registered I am pleased to announce that the Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group was officially registered with The Cochrane Collaboration on 5 May 2006. Please would you pass on this information to interested members of your entity? The Co-ordinating Editor of the Group is Dr Leontien Kremer, and the Review Group Co-ordinator is Mrs Jos Noorman. Their contact details are as follows: Department of Pediatrics Emma Children's Hospital Academic Medical Center Meibergdreef 9, PO Box 22660 1100 DD Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel. +31 20 566 9111, ext. 63250 E-mail: l.c.kremer@amc.uva.nl and j.k.noorman@amc.uva.nl A warm welcome to Leontien, Jos and colleagues. With best wishes, Jini. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX B. Sender: Mike Clarke [mclarke@cochrane.co.uk] Subject: Cochrane Fellowships on the island of Ireland 2006 For the fifth year, Cochrane Fellowships are on offer for people on the island of Ireland to work on Cochrane reviews. These Cochrane Fellowships are intended for suitably qualified individuals, resident in Northern Ireland or Ireland and working in the area of health and social care. The funding available would provide each Fellow with protected time for up to two days per week for up to two years to conduct a Cochrane review. The award will be sufficiently flexible to accommodate a variety of patterns to reflect the specific working circumstances of the individual applicants. The successful applicants will be expected to complete a Cochrane review during the term of the fellowship and to commit to the maintenance of the review thereafter. The awards will support appropriate systematic review training, the applicant's salary costs and research expenses. The deadline for applications is June 30 2006. Further information is available from: www.hrb.ie/display_content.php?page_id=144 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX C. Sender: Lara Maxwell [lmaxwell@uottawa.ca] Subject: Cochrane Health Equity Field-co-registration with Campbell and name change The Cochrane Health Equity Field is very pleased to announce that it now has co-registration status with the Campbell Collaboration. Given that the Campbell Collaboration organizational structure is different from that of Cochrane and they don’t have a ‘Fields’ entity, we are registered with them as the ‘Campbell Equity Methods Group’. To avoid confusion we will no longer be known as the Campbell and Cochrane Health Equity Field, but as the Cochrane Health Equity Field and the Campbell Equity Methods Group. We look forward to working with both Collaborations to further the inclusion of equity considerations in systematic reviews. Best wishes, Lara Maxwell On behalf of Peter Tugwell and Mark Petticrew XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX D. Sender: Denise O'Connor [denise.oconnor@med.monash.edu.au] Subject: Cochrane Symposium for Review Authors, 29-30 June, Adelaide, Australia The annual meeting for Australasian contributors to the Cochrane Collaboration is rapidly approaching. The focus of this year's symposium-style meeting, to be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre on 29-30 June, will be on review methodology and recent developments in the content and presentation of Cochrane reviews. Presenters will give insights into changes that are already affecting, or will soon affect, both review authors and staff of Cochrane entities and satellites. Each session will provide an overview of the proposed changes and allow time for discussion. Program highlights include sessions on: - the new schema for assessing studies for risk of bias led by Julian Higgins and Philippa Middleton; - the Collaboration's new Information Management System (IMS), which will integrate the software programs currently used by Review Groups and review authors (RevMan, ModMan) into a single streamlined Internet-based system, led by Liz Dooley; - new guidance for review authors on preparing plain language summaries of Cochrane reviews led by Janet Wale and discussion of knowledge translation strategies by Nancy Santesso; - advanced statistics and recent statistical enhancements to RevMan led by Julian Higgins; - publication of Cochrane reviews and plans for The Cochrane Library and derivative products led by Mark Davies and Nick Royle; and - plans to develop umbrella reviews, bringing together evidence from multiple Cochrane reviews. We hope many of you will make the trip to Adelaide and take the opportunity to get together with other contributors in an informal and relaxed environment. Please visit http://www.cochrane.org.au/symposium/index.html for more information and registration details. Denise O'Connor and Steve McDonald Australasian Cochrane Centre Web address: www.cochrane.org.au XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX E. Sender: Miranda Cumpston [cochrane@uottawa.ca] Subject: Cochrane News - first call for submissions What have you been up to? Submissions are now requested for the next issue of Cochrane News, to be published on 2 August 2006. All Cochrane contributors and entities are encouraged to share current activities across the Collaboration, including: - methodology projects; - communication and knowledge translation activities; - collaborations; - support for Cochrane authors; - awards; - new reviews of interest; or - any other stories you would like to share. Articles should be kept to a maximum of 600 words, and brief announcements and photographs are also accepted. Please send all contributions to me at cochrane@uottawa.ca by Monday, 26 June 2006. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX F. Sender: Ian Needleman [I.Needleman@eastman.ucl.ac.uk] Subject: Oral Health Course in Systematic Reviews International Centre for Evidence-Based Oral Health UCL Eastman Dental Institute, London, UK (www.eastman.ucl.ac.uk/iceboh) Intensive Four-Day Course in Systematic Reviews 4-7 September 2006 - Intensive course in systematic reviews for clinical and non-clinical professionals - Limited to ten participants - Aimed both at those who have not yet conducted a systematic review and those engaged in a review and seeking supervised guidance - The Eastman is an ideal location for study being in easy reach of all London airports and train stations Objectives: - To be able to embark on a systematic review at the end of the course - To provide guidance and support to those already engaged on a review Course leaders: Dr Ian Needleman & Dr David Moles Course content: - Scientific basis of systematic reviews - Assembling a collaborative review team - Developing a protocol - Searching for data - Quality appraisal of research - Planning study eligibility - Data abstraction - Pooling data and meta-analysis - Research ethics - Producing review conclusions and reports We encourage you to bring projects or reviews that you are planning. Cost: £750.00 to include course materials, lunch and refreshments during the four days. To reserve a place on this course, please email Shirley Goodey (s.goodey@eastman.ucl.ac.uk) for details. The closing date is Monday 3rd July 2006 and the course is likely to be fully subscribed before this time. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX G. Sender: Jini Hetherington [JHetherington@cochrane.org] Subject: Members wanted for NICE Appraisal Committee Following the announcement last year of a new rapid appraisal process, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is recruiting new members to its independent Appraisal Committee which formulates recommendations for NICE on the use of drugs and devices in the NHS in England and Wales. The Institute is looking to recruit a range of committee members including doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, patient and carer representatives, health academics including statisticians and health economists and NHS managers. Committee members are asked to apply their own experience and judgement to the topics considered by the Committee, rather than act as a representative of a particular organisation. For your information, a copy of the adverts and press release are available on our website at www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=310795. Professor David Barnett Chair, NICE Appraisal Committee XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX H. Sender: Miranda Cumpston [cochrane@uottawa.ca] Subject: Next issue of CCInfo The next regular issue of CCInfo will be published on Thursday, 25 May 2006. Please submit your items to cochrane@uottawa.ca. When submitting messages for CCInfo, please include "CCInfo" in the subject line of your email so that I can readily identify submissions. Unless you request otherwise, your submissions to the CCInfo may be duplicated in other regular Cochrane Collaboration news channels, such as Cochrane News and the Cochrane Collaboration web site, at the discretion of the editors. Regards, Miranda Miranda Cumpston Education Coordinator The Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre Institute for Work & Health 481 University Ave, Suite 800 Toronto, ON M5G 2E9 Canada Ph: +1 416 927 2027 x2193 Fax: 416 927 4167 Email: cochrane@uottawa.ca Web: www.cochrane.uottawa.ca XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ______________________________________________ To subscribe to CCInfo, send an email to listserv@listserv.uottawa.ca with the message text "SUBSCRIBE CCINFO-L" (leave the subject line blank). 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