There are several Cochrane Reviews of methods to ensure that blood transfusions are used effectively and efficiently, and that donated blood remains available for use in emergency situations. One of the first of these reviews looked at the evidence on a technique called cell salvage. It was first published in October 2003 and the fourth update appeared in September 2023. We asked new lead author, Louise Geneen from NHS Blood and Transplant based in Oxford UK, to tell us more about the technique and the latest findings of the review.

The Cochrane Breast Cancer Group have published reviews on more than 80 topics, and these were added to in September 2023 with a review of platinum-based chemotherapy for women with early stage triple negative breast cancer. In this podcast, Rachel Dear, co-author and breast cancer oncologist based in Sydney, talks with lead author, Sofia Mason from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Darlinghurst Australia about the findings.

In this podcast, we're delving into the topic of "Healthy Eating Interventions in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings", which is especially important because helping children to develop healthy eating habits early on can greatly influence their dietary choices later in life. Here’s one of the authors, Melanie Lum, talking with lead author, Serene Yoong from Deakin University in Australia about the June 2023 Cochrane review of 52 randomized trials.

Effective management of a patient's pain is a key part of cancer care and various medicines have been suggested to help with this. These include cannabis-based medicines and medical cannabis, and in June 2023, we published a new Cochrane review of their effects. Here's one of the authors, Andrew Moore, a retired scientist formerly at the University of Oxford speaking from the depths of Devon in the UK, to tell us about the review's findings.

Diabetic macular oedema is a common complication of diabetes, in which damage to the blood vessels at the back of the eye leads to swelling. Lucentis, Eylea and Avastin are three antiangiogenic drugs that can be injected into the eye to treat these blood vessels and reduce the swelling; and drugs with longer lasting effects have recently become available, such as Vabysmo and Beovue. In June 2023, Katie Curran from Queen's University Belfast in the UK and colleagues, updated their Cochrane review of these drugs and used a network meta-analysis to compare their effects. Here’s Katie to tell us more.

Several Cochrane reviews look at the evidence on interventions that might be used for older people in long-term care settings and these include reviews on ways to prevent or reduce the use of interventions that might do more harm than good. Among these, the review of interventions for preventing and reducing the use of physical restraints was updated in July 2023. We asked lead author, Ralph Möhler of the University Hospital Düsseldorf in Germany, to tell us about physical restraints and the latest findings of the review in this podcast.

The Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group has produced many reviews of the role of nicotine replacement therapy in smoking cessation and, in June 2023, they updated their review of different doses, durations and modes of delivery. Here's first author, Annika Theodoulou from the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Oxford in the UK to tell us about the latest findings.

Cochrane has produced around 40 systematic reviews of interventions that might help people after cardiac arrest. In this podcast, review author Nikola Schütz talks with lead author Jasmin Arrich, a consultant working at the emergency department at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, about the May 2023 update for one of these, looking at the effects of an intervention called therapeutic hypothermia or temperature control for patients who have been resuscitated after a cardiac arrest.

As the population ages, an increasing number of older people are living with frailty. A new Cochrane review from May 2023 looks at the evidence on the effects of case management for their integrated care. Here's one of the authors, Euan Sadler from the University of Southampton in the UK, to tell us about frailty and what they found.

The Cochrane Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems Group has produced approximately 200 reviews, with several relevant to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. One of these reviews, on the effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids, was updated in April 2023. Here's lead author, Donna Gillies from the University of Sydney in Australia to tell us more.

The Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Group produced more than 300 reviews across a very wide range of topics. These include a review of the treatment of jelly fish stings, which was updated in June 2023. We asked lead author, Richard McGee from the Department of Paediatrics in Gosford Hospital in Australia to tell us more and he used an AI voice from elevenlabs.io to make the recording.

Back in October 1998, we published the first version of the Cochrane review of the effects of cranberry for preventing urinary tract infections. Nearly 25 years on, the fifth update was published in April 2023 and we asked lead author, Gabrielle Williams from University of Sydney in Australia to bring us up to date in this podcast.

The Cochrane Gut group have produced more than 220 reviews, including some that investigate treatments for Clostridioides difficile infection. These were added to in April 2023, with a new review of the use of fecal microbiota transplantation for the treatment of recurrent infection. Here's Zev Minkoff from Valley Children's Hospital in Madera in the USA to tell us more about the condition and this treatment.

As you can imagine, placing a breathing tube into a newborn baby is a particularly challenging task, and research has been done into different ways to do this. In May 2023, Mohan Pammi and co-reviewers from Baylor College of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Boston Children's Hospital, updated the Cochrane review on comparing videolaryngoscopy to the traditional direct laryngoscopy approach and Mohan describes the latest findings in this podcast.

In some areas of health and social care, the evidence from individual randomised trials answering questions about single interventions makes it difficult to choose between the interventions. Network meta-analyses can help with this by bringing all the evidence together in one place and, in February 2023, Cochrane Eyes and Vision published one such review, looking at the control of myopia in children. Here's lead author, John Lawrenson from City University of London in the UK, to tell us more.

The portfolio of reviews from the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Group was added to in December 2022 with a new review of the effects of family‐centred interventions for Indigenous early childhood well‐being delivered by primary healthcare services. We asked lead author, Natalie Strobel from Edith Cowan University in Mount Lawley Australia, to tell us about these interventions and their effects in this podcast.

Acute respiratory infections are one of the most common reasons for people to present to primary care and decisions about whether or not to prescribe antibiotics might rely on point-of-care tests for inflammation. The relevant Cochrane review was updated in October 2022 and we asked new lead author, Siri Aas Smedemark from Odense University Hospital in Denmark, to tell us more in this podcast.

Many patients with moderate or severe chronic kidney disease will develop anaemia and a variety of treatments are available. In February 2023, the Cochrane Review of studies testing a range of erythropoietin drugs was updated and we asked first author, Edmund Chung from The Children's Hospital at Westmead in Australia to tell us about the latest findings in this podcast.

There's increasing recognition of the importance of involving patients and the public in decision making about health services and a growing body of relevant research. In March 2023, we published a new qualitative evidence synthesis which brings some of this research together. It used co-production and, in this podcast Rachel Plachcinski, an independent Parent, Patient and Public Involvement Consultant and member of Cochrane's Consumer Network Executive, speaks with two of the authors, Bronwen Merner and Rebecca Ryan, from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Group about the review and its findings.

The Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group has prepared more than 220 reviews and, in September 2022, a team from Germany, The Netherlands and New Zealand updated one of these, looking at the use of a drug called letrozole for subfertile women with anovulatory polycystic ovary syndrome. Lead author, Sebastian Franik from the University of Münster in Germany describes the latest findings in this podcast.