What is the Cochrane Library?
Lack of time and an overabundance of medical information often make decisions about health issues difficult. It is hard to keep track of the rapid growth in publications. Cochrane systematic reviews provide researchers, health professionals, and patients with a scientifically validated information base to help them assess the current state of research in a short time. The Cochrane Library is an important source of evidence-based health information. Such information is essential for the preparation of guidelines and HTA reports, for example.
Content of the Cochrane Library
- Cochrane Reviews
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) contains the reviews and protocols of ongoing review projects, that are elaborated and updated in the Cochrane Review Groups. All reviews include a scientific abstract and a plain language summary, that lay people can understand more easily and that is often translated into several languages. - Trials
The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) contains the world's largest database of randomised controlled trials from database searches and hand searches. It also contains references to trials that have only been published in congress proceedings or other sources and are not indexed in bibliographic databases. - Clinical Answers
This section contains the evidence from over 2000 selected Cochrane Reviews in an easily accessible short format that facilitates decision making at the point of care. Each entry contains a clinical question, a short answer and the results of the review, arranged by study outcomes.
More information and links to the Cochrane Library can be found here.
Discover the new videos and tutorials on using the Cochrane Library in the Training Hub.