Cochrane Library Special Collections provide a round-up of up-to-date Cochrane evidence on a specific topic. This Special Collection provides examples of resource-intense interventions for which there is high or moderate certainty evidence that they confer clinically small or no effects, and for which there is some evidence of harm to patients.
The reviews included in this special Collection are particularly relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, and should inform guideline, and policy developers, and decision makers planning health care, both during and after the pandemic. It was developed in collaboration with Cochrane Members from Cochrane Argentina, Cochrane Chile, Cochrane Denmark, Cochrane Methods, Cochrane Sustainable Healthcare, and Cochrane Sweden.
The contributors to the Special Collection have also published an accompanying editorial; 'Making wise choices about low-value healthcare in the COVID-19 pandemic.' They explain how the COVID‐19 pandemic has underscored the need for reliable evidence to support treatment decisions and health policy, and dwindling public funding of health systems makes the need for evidence to identify and de‐implement ineffective interventions even more acute. They share that this is the first of a series of Special Collections that will focus on healthcare interventions shown to being ineffective, potentially harmful, or unproven.
