Last week, Cochrane participated in the 154th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board meeting in Geneva.

The Executive Board is composed of 34 technically qualified representatives from different Member States, elected for three-year terms. Every January, the Executive Board meets at WHO headquarters to discuss global public health priorities for the year ahead and set the agenda for the World Health Assembly.

In addition to the Executive Board, all Member States and civil society organizations in official relations with WHO, such as Cochrane, are given the opportunity to contribute. This provided our delegation a great platform to advocate for evidence-based health policy. 

The session began with an opening statement by WHO Director-General. He highlighted the key achievements of the previous year, including the landmark decision to include life-changing treatments for multiple sclerosis drugs in the Essential Medicines List, which Cochrane Multiple Sclerosis and Rare Diseases of the CNS played a key role in.

WHO’s 14th General Programme of Work (GPW14) was a major focus of this year’s meeting. GPW14 is a medium-term strategy agreed by Member States and will defines the direction of WHO’s work (including on evidence-based health) for 2025-28, with the goal to promote, provide, and protect health. 

Emma Thompson, Cochrane’s Advocacy and Partnerships Lead, made a statement in front of Member States and WHO’s Director-General, speaking on behalf of Cochrane in applauding the draft GPW’s recognition of WHO’s science and evidence-based leadership, particularly highlighting the importance of high-quality evidence in health decision making. 

In addition to the official planned activities at the Executive Board meeting, Cochrane’s delegation used the opportunity to meet with several different WHO departments to discuss plans for Cochrane’s Scientific Strategy, which is currently in development, and opportunities for our next joint workplan.

Our delegation had many productive conversations with key individuals and teams on how Cochrane and WHO can continue to work together to address global public health priorities in the coming years. Supported by our years of relationship building, collaboration and advocacy, we held meetings with many WHO teams, covering a wide range of portfolios including maternal, newborn and child health; essential medicines; malaria, tropical diseases; nutrition; clinical trials; guidelines; health emergencies; and science. 

Another key highlight of the week was a meeting between Cochrane’s Editor-in-Chief, Dr Karla Soares-Weiser, and the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr Jarbas Barbosa and Dr Rhonda Sealey-Thomas, PAHO Assistant Director. During the meeting, they discussed collaboration between Cochrane and PAHO, which is underpinned by a new memorandum of understanding and Dr Soares-Weiser highlighted Cochrane’s enthusiasm for the formalisation of this partnership.

• Find out more about the 154th session of the Executive Board

Last week, Cochrane participated in the 154th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board meeting in Geneva.

The Executive Board is composed of 34 technically qualified representatives from different Member States, elected for three-year terms. Every January, the Executive Board meets at WHO headquarters to discuss global public health priorities for the year ahead and set the agenda for the World Health Assembly.

In addition to the Executive Board, all Member States and civil society organizations in official relations with WHO, such as Cochrane, are given the opportunity to contribute. This provided our delegation a great platform to advocate for evidence-based health policy. 

The session began with an opening statement by WHO Director-General. He highlighted the key achievements of the previous year, including the landmark decision to include life-changing treatments for multiple sclerosis drugs in the Essential Medicines List, which Cochrane Multiple Sclerosis and Rare Diseases of the CNS played a key role in.

WHO’s 14th General Programme of Work (GPW14) was a major focus of this year’s meeting. GPW14 is a medium-term strategy agreed by Member States and will defines the direction of WHO’s work (including on evidence-based health) for 2025-28, with the goal to promote, provide, and protect health. 

Emma Thompson, Cochrane’s Advocacy and Partnerships Lead, made a statement in front of Member States and WHO’s Director-General, speaking on behalf of Cochrane in applauding the draft GPW’s recognition of WHO’s science and evidence-based leadership, particularly highlighting the importance of high-quality evidence in health decision making. 

In addition to the official planned activities at the Executive Board meeting, Cochrane’s delegation used the opportunity to meet with several different WHO departments to discuss plans for Cochrane’s Scientific Strategy, which is currently in development, and opportunities for our next joint workplan.

Our delegation had many productive conversations with key individuals and teams on how Cochrane and WHO can continue to work together to address global public health priorities in the coming years. Supported by our years of relationship building, collaboration and advocacy, we held meetings with many WHO teams, covering a wide range of portfolios including maternal, newborn and child health; essential medicines; malaria, tropical diseases; nutrition; clinical trials; guidelines; health emergencies; and science. 

Another key highlight of the week was a meeting between Cochrane’s Editor-in-Chief, Dr Karla Soares-Weiser, and the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr Jarbas Barbosa and Dr Rhonda Sealey-Thomas, PAHO Assistant Director. During the meeting, they discussed collaboration between Cochrane and PAHO, which is underpinned by a new memorandum of understanding and Dr Soares-Weiser highlighted Cochrane’s enthusiasm for the formalisation of this partnership.

• Find out more about the 154th session of the Executive Board

Today marks the official opening of registration for attendance at the second Global Evidence Summit (GES) 2024. Organized by the world’s leading organizations in evidence synthesis and evidence-based practice, including Cochrane, JBI, Guidelines International Network (GIN), and The Campbell Collaboration, the summit is set to take place in the historical city of Prague, Czech Republic, from 10 to 13 September 2024, with satellite meetings on 9 September 2024.

The GES is intended as a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural event to exchange ideas about how we best produce, summarise and disseminate evidence to inform policy and practice, and using that evidence to improve people’s lives across the world. The summit will feature plenary keynote speakers, special sessions with panel experts, and traditional conference elements like posters and oral presentations. There will also be a robust social program to make sure there are plenty of opportunities to network and have conversations across sectors, such as health, education, social justice, the environment, and climate change. The programme domains include:

• Sustainable development agenda
• Research integrity & making evidence accessible
• Power of synergy in evidence & synthesis products
• Evidence translation & implementation
• Advocating for greater evidence communication & use of evidence
• From global evidence to local impact 

Miloslav Klugar, Chair of the Scientific and Local Organising Committee, extends a warm welcome:

“On behalf of our organising partners, I invite you all to join us for the eagerly anticipated 2nd Global Evidence Summit. You belong at GES! It’s a unique gathering of research and scientists, policymakers and managers but also students, consumers and activities, and patients and caregivers. This is a unique opportunity for people across the globe to get involved in evidence-based practice, with a shared mission to provide a platform to discuss critical issues across different sectors, including health, education, social justice, the environment and climate change.”  

Catherine Spencer, Cochrane's CEO, emphasizing the significance of the GES in fostering synergies and knowledge sharing within the global evidence community:

" I encourage the Cochrane Community to take advantage of Early Bird Registration for the 2nd Global Evidence Summit. Your participation will not only enrich your knowledge but also contribute to a global movement towards impactful, evidence-informed decision-making. Let's unite for #GES2024 and contribute to advancing evidence-based practice globally! We look forward to seeing you there!"

Early-bird registration is now open until 13 June. Standard registration is open until 14 August with late/onsite registration available. We also offer discounts to those from low-income economies as well as patients/consumers and students.

• Visit the GES website
• Learn more about registration
• Registration form

Today marks the official opening of registration for attendance at the second Global Evidence Summit (GES) 2024. Organized by the world’s leading organizations in evidence synthesis and evidence-based practice, including Cochrane, JBI, Guidelines International Network (GIN), and The Campbell Collaboration, the summit is set to take place in the historical city of Prague, Czech Republic, from 10 to 13 September 2024, with satellite meetings on 9 September 2024.

The GES is intended as a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural event to exchange ideas about how we best produce, summarise and disseminate evidence to inform policy and practice, and using that evidence to improve people’s lives across the world. The summit will feature plenary keynote speakers, special sessions with panel experts, and traditional conference elements like posters and oral presentations. There will also be a robust social program to make sure there are plenty of opportunities to network and have conversations across sectors, such as health, education, social justice, the environment, and climate change. The programme domains include:

• Sustainable development agenda
• Research integrity & making evidence accessible
• Power of synergy in evidence & synthesis products
• Evidence translation & implementation
• Advocating for greater evidence communication & use of evidence
• From global evidence to local impact 

Miloslav Klugar, Chair of the Scientific and Local Organising Committee, extends a warm welcome:

“On behalf of our organising partners, I invite you all to join us for the eagerly anticipated 2nd Global Evidence Summit. You belong at GES! It’s a unique gathering of research and scientists, policymakers and managers but also students, consumers and activities, and patients and caregivers. This is a unique opportunity for people across the globe to get involved in evidence-based practice, with a shared mission to provide a platform to discuss critical issues across different sectors, including health, education, social justice, the environment and climate change.”  

Catherine Spencer, Cochrane's CEO, emphasizing the significance of the GES in fostering synergies and knowledge sharing within the global evidence community:

" I encourage the Cochrane Community to take advantage of Early Bird Registration for the 2nd Global Evidence Summit. Your participation will not only enrich your knowledge but also contribute to a global movement towards impactful, evidence-informed decision-making. Let's unite for #GES2024 and contribute to advancing evidence-based practice globally! We look forward to seeing you there!"

Early-bird registration is now open until 13 June. Standard registration is open until 14 August with late/onsite registration available. We also offer discounts to those from low-income economies as well as patients/consumers and students.

• Visit the GES website
• Learn more about registration
• Registration form

Taking over as the Cochrane Review with the most included studies when it was updated in November 2023, is the Cochrane Methodology Review of strategies to improve the response rates for postal and web questionnaires. Here's lead author, Phil Edwards from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK, to outline the importance of the review and its latest findings.

About one in ten live births around the world are preterm and many very preterm babies will develop respiratory distress soon after birth and require help with their breathing. Various strategies are available for this and an updated Cochrane review from July 2023 provides the latest evidence on the early use of nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation compared with nasal continuous positive airway pressure. We asked one of the authors, Marc-Olivier Deguise from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Canada to tell us about the findings, and he used ElevenLabs to make this recording.

About one in ten live births around the world are preterm and many of these babies will develop respiratory distress and require help with their breathing. Various strategies are available for this and an updated Cochrane review from July 2023 provides the latest evidence on the comparison of nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation versus nasal continuous positive airway pressure when a baby’s breathing tube is removed. We asked one of the authors, Marc-Olivier Deguise from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Canada to tell us about the findings, and he used ElevenLabs to make this recording.

Alongside the many thousands of Cochrane reviews of the effects of health care interventions, is a review of decision aids that might help people make decisions about treatment or screening. This was first published in January 2003 and the fifth update has been published 21 years later. Here's the current lead author, Dawn Stacey from the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada, who's been working on the review for all that time to tell us about the need for the review and its latest findings.

Specifications: Fixed term (2 years), 0.6 FTE
Salary:  £35,000 pro-rata
Location: (Remote – Flexible) Candidates anywhere from the world will be considered; however, Cochrane’s Central Executive Team is only able to offer consultancy contracts outside these countries.
Closing date:  6 February 2024 

Cochrane is an international charity. For 30 years we have responded to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesising research findings and our work has been recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

Cochrane's strength is in its collaborative, global community. We have 110,000+ members and supporters around the world. Though we are spread out across the globe, our shared passion for health evidence unites us. Our Central Executive Team supports this work and is divided into four directorates: Evidence Production and Methods, Publishing and Technology, Development, and Finance and Corporate Services.

The Consumer Support Officer will work closely with Cochrane’s Consumer Engagement Officer to support the involvement of consumers (patients, carers and the public) in the Wellcome-funded GALENOS project, including in systematic reviews about mental health topics. Support of consumers in this work will involve connecting consumers with lived experience of mental health challenges to researchers, developing learning resources to support consumer involvement in systematic reviews, and generally promoting patient and public involvement in the systematic review space.  

Don’t have every single qualification? We know that some people are less likely to apply for a job unless they are a perfect match. At Cochrane, we’re not looking for “perfect matches.” We’re looking to welcome people to our diverse, inclusive, and passionate workplace. So, if you’re excited about this role but don’t have every single qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. Whether it’s this role or another one, you may be just the right candidate.

Our organization is built on four core values: Collaboration: Underpins everything we do, locally and globally. Relevant: The right evidence at the right time in the right format. Integrity: Independent and transparent. Quality: Reviewing and improving what we do, maintaining rigour and trust.  

You can expect: 

• An opportunity to truly impact health globally.  
• A flexible work environment  
• A comprehensive onboarding experiences.
• An environment where people feel welcome, heard, and included, regardless of their differences.

Cochrane welcomes applications from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, locations, and backgrounds; diversity, equity and inclusion are key to our values.

How to apply

• For further information on the role and how to apply
• The deadline to receive your application is 6th Feb, 2024.
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples. 
• Read our Recruitment Privacy Statement

Specifications: Fixed term (2 years), 0.6 FTE
Salary:  £35,000 pro-rata
Location: (Remote – Flexible) Candidates anywhere from the world will be considered; however, Cochrane’s Central Executive Team is only able to offer consultancy contracts outside these countries.
Closing date:  6 February 2024 

Cochrane is an international charity. For 30 years we have responded to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesising research findings and our work has been recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

Cochrane's strength is in its collaborative, global community. We have 110,000+ members and supporters around the world. Though we are spread out across the globe, our shared passion for health evidence unites us. Our Central Executive Team supports this work and is divided into four directorates: Evidence Production and Methods, Publishing and Technology, Development, and Finance and Corporate Services.

The Consumer Support Officer will work closely with Cochrane’s Consumer Engagement Officer to support the involvement of consumers (patients, carers and the public) in the Wellcome-funded GALENOS project, including in systematic reviews about mental health topics. Support of consumers in this work will involve connecting consumers with lived experience of mental health challenges to researchers, developing learning resources to support consumer involvement in systematic reviews, and generally promoting patient and public involvement in the systematic review space.  

Don’t have every single qualification? We know that some people are less likely to apply for a job unless they are a perfect match. At Cochrane, we’re not looking for “perfect matches.” We’re looking to welcome people to our diverse, inclusive, and passionate workplace. So, if you’re excited about this role but don’t have every single qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. Whether it’s this role or another one, you may be just the right candidate.

Our organization is built on four core values: Collaboration: Underpins everything we do, locally and globally. Relevant: The right evidence at the right time in the right format. Integrity: Independent and transparent. Quality: Reviewing and improving what we do, maintaining rigour and trust.  

You can expect: 

• An opportunity to truly impact health globally.  
• A flexible work environment  
• A comprehensive onboarding experiences.
• An environment where people feel welcome, heard, and included, regardless of their differences.

Cochrane welcomes applications from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, locations, and backgrounds; diversity, equity and inclusion are key to our values.

How to apply

• For further information on the role and how to apply
• The deadline to receive your application is 6th Feb, 2024.
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples. 
• Read our Recruitment Privacy Statement

Specifications: Permanent – Full Time
Salary:  £64,000 per Annum  
Location: (Remote – Flexible) Candidates anywhere from the world will be considered; however, Cochrane’s Central Executive Team is only able to offer consultancy contracts outside these countries.
Closing date:  9 February, 2024 

Cochrane is an international charity. For 30 years we have responded to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesising research findings and our work has been recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

Cochrane's strength is in its collaborative, global community. We have 110,000+ members and supporters around the world. Though we are spread out across the globe, our shared passion for health evidence unites us. Our Central Executive Team supports this work and is divided into four directorates: Evidence Production and Methods, Publishing and Technology, Development, and Finance and Corporate Services.

To lead and hold responsibility for Cochrane’s editorial operations, and to support the Deputy Operations Manager and Editor in Chief of Cochrane in achieving the strategic aims and delivering the objectives of the Cochrane Evidence Production and Methods Directorate (EPMD).   

Don’t have every single qualification? We know that some people are less likely to apply for a job unless they are a perfect match. At Cochrane, we’re not looking for “perfect matches.” We’re looking to welcome people to our diverse, inclusive, and passionate workplace. So, if you’re excited about this role but don’t have every single qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. Whether it’s this role or another one, you may be just the right candidate.

Our organization is built on four core values: Collaboration: Underpins everything we do, locally and globally. Relevant: The right evidence at the right time in the right format. Integrity: Independent and transparent. Quality: Reviewing and improving what we do, maintaining rigour and trust.  

You can expect:  

• An opportunity to truly impact health globally.  
• A flexible work environment  
• A comprehensive onboarding experiences.
• An environment where people feel welcome, heard, and included, regardless of their differences.

Cochrane welcomes applications from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, locations, and backgrounds; diversity, equity and inclusion are key to our values.

How to apply

• For further information on the role and how to apply
• The deadline to receive your application is 9th Feb, 2024.
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples. 
• Read our Recruitment Privacy Statement