The latest Cochrane news from around Australia and beyond
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Bumper autumn edition 🍁
It's been a while between Cochrane Aus newsletters... but we hope to make amends for our recent radio silence with this bumper autumn edition. In it you'll find a round up of new reviews and insights from local Cochrane authors who've been hard at work exploring the latest global evidence on depression in aged care and hospital in the home programs.
We also take a look at the latest lessons learned about public health communication and evidence surveillance during Covid, and share the details of upcoming events and training workshops in GRADE and systematic review methods.
Questions? Comments? Drop us a line at cochrane@monash.edu or message us on our socials (instagram, linkedin + x) any time.
New reviews – Australian perspectives
Promising new evidence on psychological therapy for aged care residents – one of Australia's highest risk groups for depression
In 2019 the ABC’s Old people’s home for 4-year-olds captured the public imagination. Charting an intergenerational ‘social experiment’, the docuseries attracted more viewers than MasterChef, won an Emmy Award and inspired new intergenerational programs around Australia. For the first time, the lives of older people struggling with loneliness, isolation and depression in aged care were the subject of popular attention.
A year later, aged care was in the spotlight again for a very different and much more disturbing reason. The Australian Government’s Royal Commission into Aged Care handed down its findings on a national aged care system in crisis, characterised by widespread systemic failures, suffering, abuse and neglect. Against this backdrop, a new Cochrane review on psychological therapy in residential aged care provides especially timely, relevant and useful evidence for policy
makers, healthcare providers, older people and their families, friends and carers who want better quality of care and life for aged care residents.
Listen to Cochrane authors Tanya Davison, Sunil Bhar and aged care resident Helen McGeorge explore the review findings on ABC RN Life Matters
Read Tanya and Sunil's summary of key findings in The Conversation
Download the psychological therapies review infographic
Latest evidence on Hospital in the home programs: implementation, sustainability & patient perspectives
Two companion Cochrane reviews and a new Cochrane Library editorial on Hospital at home programs were published last month.
Local Cochrane author Dr Jason Wallis shares the key findings and what they mean for Australian clinicians, policy makers and communities...
Latest learnings from Covid-19
Three years of daily evidence surveillance for Australia's COVID-19 Taskforce: reflections from a busy search specialist
A new paper by Cochrane Australia co-director and information specialist Steve McDonald charts how a talented team provided daily global evidence surveillance and rapid updates to Australia’s National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce for over three years.
Published in Cochrane’s Evidence Synthesis and Methods journal, Steve's paper explores how the rapidity, volume and breadth of evidence generated throughout the pandemic created a novel and challenging environment for clinical guideline development.
Public health communication during the COVID pandemic: what worked, what didn’t & why
A recent Cochrane update of a WHO rapid review explores the different approaches governments and health authorities around the world used to communicate critical public health information throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australian review authors Rebecca Ryan and Shauna Hurley submitted the review along with five key recommendations to the Australian Government’s Inquiry into the National COVID Response. Here, they share a snapshot of the review findings and clear, evidence-based recommendations for current and future public health crisis messaging.
All things living evidence
The team at the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC) has been extra busy of late. Adopting a (slightly) new name, welcoming a new Strategic Advisory Committee and advocating for greater support for living evidence in Australia.
Perhaps the biggest news is that a new flagship living guidelines project is well underway, with experts aboard, panels convened and initial recommendations now open for consultation. Based on the successful COVID living guidelines model, the Australian Living Evidence for Pregnancy and Postnatal Care Guidelines (LEAPP) project is characterised by similarly rigorous evidence review, cross-disciplinary collaboration and the consistent delivery of up-to-date, accessible clinical recommendations.
You can find all the details and share your feedback on the latest recommendations on the Australian Pregnancy Care Guidelines and Australian Postnatal Care Guidelines any time.
Training
GRADE approach to summarise evidence for policy and practice
11 & 12 April 2024
(half day, online)
This online course is designed for systematic review authors, guideline developers, and others wanting to use GRADE to interpret and summarise evidence. It introduces the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach for assessing certainty of evidence and provides practical experience applying the methods to evidence for policy and practice.
GRADE Evidence to Decision framework for making recommendations
18 & 19 April 2024
(online)
This two half-day course introduces participants to the process of going from evidence to recommendations using the GRADE framework. It includes interactive examples to demonstrate how the framework is used by panels to reach decisions and an interactive mock panel. It is suitable for guideline panel members and technical teams responsible for preparing Evidence-to-Decision frameworks.
Writing a systematic review following Cochrane methods
14 & 16 May 2024 (online)
The course is designed to give those with little or no experience in systematic reviews a broad appreciation of the steps involved in planning a review. It covers several newer topics in the Cochrane Handbook, including planning for synthesis and the Cochrane risk of bias 2 tool. The course features practicals and demonstrations, including using Cochrane’s RevMan Web tool for conducting analysis.
Events
2024 World Health Summit Regional Meeting
22 – 24 April 2024
Monash University is proudly hosting this unique global health forum, bringing it to Australian shores for the first time, and providing a platform to elevate Asia-Pacific’s greatest health and wellbeing challenges to a global stage.
Global Evidence Summit, Prague
10 – 13 September 2024
Organised by Cochrane, JBI, Guidelines International Network (GIN), and The Campbell Collaboration, the GES summit will be held in Prague from 10 to 13 September, with satellite meetings on 9 September.
