About us

Cochrane is an international network with headquarters in the UK, a registered not-for-profit organization, and a member of the UK National Council for Voluntary Organizations.

Cochrane is for anyone interested in using high-quality information to make health decisions. Whether you are a clinician, patient or carer, researcher, or policy-maker, Cochrane evidence provides a powerful tool to enhance your healthcare knowledge and decision-making.

Cochrane's members and supporters come from more than 190 countries, worldwide. We 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 30 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 vision

Our vision

Our vision is a world of better health for all people where decisions about health and care are informed by high-quality evidence.


Our missionOur mission 

We are an independent, diverse, global organization that collaborates to produce trusted synthesized evidence, make it accessible to all, and advocate for its use. Our work is internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care.


What we do iconWhat we do

Cochrane exists so that healthcare decisions get better; and our Strategy for Change aims to put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making all over the world. It organizes our work around three goals:

Goal 1: Producing trusted evidence

To produce trusted and timely synthesized evidence addressing the most important questions for health and care 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.

Watch 'What are systematic reviews'

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Goal 2: Advocating for evidence

To be a leading global advocate for evidence-informed health and care. 

Goal 3: Informing health and care decisions

To inform health and care decisions by making our evidence accessible, usable, and available to all.


How we do this iconHow do we do this?

  1. Collaboration: Underpins everything we do, locally and globally
  2. Relevance: The right evidence at the right time in the right format
  3. Integrity: Independent and transparent
  4. Quality: Reviewing and improving what we do, maintaining rigour and trust

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.

Click to read our founding principles

Our principles

Cochrane's work is based on ten key principles:

  1. Collaboration
    by fostering global co-operation, teamwork, and open and transparent communication and decision-making.
  2. Building on the enthusiasm of individuals
    by involving, supporting and training people of different skills and backgrounds.
  3. Avoiding duplication of effort
    by good management, co-ordination and effective internal communications to maximize economy of effort.
  4. Minimizing bias
    through a variety of approaches such as scientific rigour, ensuring broad participation, and avoiding conflicts of interest.
  5. Keeping up-to-date
    by a commitment to ensure that Cochrane Reviews are maintained through identification and incorporation of new evidence.
  6. Striving for relevance
    by promoting the assessment of health questions using outcomes that matter to people making choices in health and health care.
  7. 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.
  8. Ensuring quality
    by applying advances in methodology, developing systems for quality improvement, and being open and responsive to criticism.
  9. Continuity
    by ensuring that responsibility for reviews, editorial processes, and key functions is maintained and renewed.
  10. Enabling wide participation
    in our work by reducing barriers to contributing and by encouraging diversity.
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Why do we do this?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 digital 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.

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