Cochrane Germany is delighted to announce the official launch of a new Foundation securing the future of using high-quality information to promote health decision-making in Germany.
Tuesday, 23 January, saw the opening ceremony of the Cochrane Germany Foundation (Cochrane Deutschland Stiftung, CDS), which was established in November 2017 by the Medical Center at the University of Freiburg.
The Cochrane Germany Foundation is an exciting collaboration between Cochrane Germany, The Medical Center at the University of Freiburg, and the Federal Ministry of Health which will secure future institutional funding for Cochrane’s work for at least the next ten years, and is one of its kind world-wide.
The Cochrane Germany Foundation will promote evidence-based health decision making by supporting and training new authors of Cochrane Reviews, as well as working with clinicians, professional associations, policy-makers, patients, and the media to encourage the dissemination and use of Cochrane evidence.
The Foundation is part of Cochrane, a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health. Cochrane works with collaborators from more than 130 countries and in 14 languages to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. Cochrane’s work is recognized as representing an international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.
Speaking last November, Germany’s Minster of Health, Hermann Gröhe said: “We need independent research, evaluating and updating the evidence regularly and by this means delivering reliable information for the best treatments. Thus, I committed myself that the German Federation is finally able to fund Cochrane in Germany sustainably through the Cochrane Germany Foundation.”
The Foundation’s Interim Scientific Director, Professor Gerd Antes, says this is a hugely exciting opportunity: “The launch of the Cochrane Germany Foundation is very important. Producing and increasing the dissemination of the best available information on health care is critical for clinicians and patients everywhere in the world.”
Cochrane’s CEO Mark Wilson, attending today’s official opening ceremony, commented: “I am delighted to welcome the establishment of the Cochrane Germany Foundation, and this innovative new partnership between Cochrane, the German Federal Ministry of Health and the Medical Center of the University of Freiburg. Thanks to the generous funding and support of the Ministry and the University, Cochrane Germany’s work will increase the production, accessibility and use of the highest quality health evidence in Germany, promoting better health decision-making by patients, clinicians and decision-makers and improving the health outcomes for millions of people across the country.”
