Podcasts from The Cochrane Library

Integrated disease management for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

2 years 2 months ago

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is one of the most common lung conditions and there are several Cochrane reviews of possible treatments. One of these, dealing with integrated disease management, was updated in September 2021 and we asked lead author Charlotte Poot from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands to tell us about the latest findings.

Is it safe to use lower blood counts (haemoglobin levels) as a trigger for blood transfusion in order to give fewer blood transfusions?

2 years 3 months ago

Blood transfusions are a very common medical procedure, and it’s important to balance the potential benefits and harms. In December 2021, Jeffrey Carson from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, in New Brunswick in the USA, and colleagues updated the Cochrane Review of research comparing different triggers for transfusing red blood cells and we asked him to tell us more about the importance of the review and its findings.

Paying for performance to improve the delivery of healthcare services in low- and middle-income countries

2 years 3 months ago

Alongside the thousands of Cochrane Reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions, there are many that look at how to organise and deliver health care. One of these, on the use of a strategy called “paying for performance” was updated in May 2021. Here's one of the authors, Sophie Witter from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh in Scotland, to tell us about the strategy and its effectiveness.

Which treatments are best for symptoms in COVID-19 patients at the end of life?

2 years 3 months ago

Cochrane is producing a series of reviews to help in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among these, our systematic review of interventions for palliative symptom control in people dying of COVID-19 was published in August 2021. In this podcast, Claire Iannizzi speaks with the lead author, Marike Andreas, both from the University Hospital Cologne in Germany, about the review’s findings. 

Are corticosteroids (anti-inflammatory medicines) given orally or by injection an effective treatment for people with COVID-19?

2 years 3 months ago

Cochrane has produced several reviews to help decision makers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, we published the first version of a living systematic review on systemic corticosteroids and, in this podcast, the first authors, Mirko Griesel of the University of Leipzig Medical Center and Carina Wagner of the University Hospital in Cologne, Germany, talk about the evidence they’ve found and the potential effects of these drugs.

Checked
13 hours 15 minutes ago
Cochrane produces systematic reviews which are recognized as the highest standard in evidence-based health care resources. Listen to Cochrane review authors explain in plain language the evidence and findings of their high-impact reviews. In 5 minutes or less, healthcare professionals to patients and families can understand the latest trusted evidence to help make better informed decisions.
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