THE COCHRANE COLLABORATION - ADVANCES AND CHALLENGES IN IMPROVING EVIDENCE-BASED DECISION-MAKING

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international organization that aims to help people make well-informed decisions about health care by prepa ring, maintaining, and ensuring the accessibility of rigorous, systema tic, and up-to-date reviews (and, where possible, meta-analyses) of th e benefits and risks of health care interventions. This article descri bes the structure of the Cochrane Collaboration and the processes used to carry out the task of research transfer. The authors focus on rece nt achievements of the Collaboration, emphasize the current challenges and barriers the Collaboration is facing to live up to the expectatio ns it has generated, and highlight the strategies that the organizatio n is using to meet those challenges.