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Golden nuggets for dissemination: extracting relevant information from Cochrane reviews.

Claire Glenton.
Nordic Cochrane Centre, Norwegian Branch.
Nancy Santesso.
Musculoskeletal Group / Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.

claire.glenton doesnotexist@cochrane.org kunnskapssenteret.no


Objective: To discuss and practice methods to extract decision-relevant information from Cochrane systematic reviews and Summary of Findings Tables (SoFs) and present them in a user friendly format.

Summary: Almost 50% of Cochrane reviews are over 5000 words long. Decision makers, such as healthcare professionals or consumers, and disseminators of information, such as members of the media, healthcare associations or consumer organizations often lack the skills to filter through and translate Cochrane reviews into 'golden nuggets' of knowledge. Extracting relevant information from Cochrane reviews, presenting it in a useable format and developing user friendly front ends of Cochrane reviews are necessary when transferring the knowledge from Cochrane reviews. Translating the results in friendly numbers will also make it easier for the media to highlight key unbiased messages from Cochrane reviews.

A template and guide to facilitate the extraction and presentation of relevant information from Cochrane reviews and SoFs was developed. Use of this template will be described and participants will have practical hands-on experience using the template for a Cochrane review. Participants will learn how to present information about benefits and harms in an unbiased and accessible manner. They will adapt the quantitative information from SoFs into a plain language table of quantitative information. Numbers from the tables will be converted to absolute numbers, event rates or numbers out of 100; quality of the evidence will also be adapted from the SoFs. Participants will then translate the plain language numbers and the quality of evidence into qualitative statements that are easy to understand.


Level of knowledge required to attend: intermediate.