A Glimpse into the Cochrane Library

I’m taking notes on the Cochrane Library. The site – a collection of databases and reviews – drew my attention yesterday when an embargo was breached for an article to be published there having to do with zinc’s putative power to squelch the common cold.

From the website, published John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: the Library is put forth by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group established in 1993. This on-line set includes the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, which so far has published over 4000 papers. The stated aim is to help people make well-informed decisions about human health.

Professor Archibald Leman Cochrane, a health care researcher and pioneering epidemiologist, was born in Scotland in 1909. He attended Cambridge and studied medicine in London. His work was interrupted, extensively. According to the Cochrane site, he served in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and was a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps during WWII. At one point he was taken as a POW, in Crete. Later on, after a stint studying tuberculosis in Philadelphia, among other endeavors, he became a full Professor at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, Wales.

In some countries and Canadian provinces, the Cochrane Library is freely and fully available to anyone with Internet access, based on funding for the collaboration. Here in the U.S., you might view the complete database through a public or university library subscription.

—

Related Posts:

• Dr. Edward Shortliffe, on the History and Future of Biomedical Informatics
• What Does it Mean if Primary Care Doctors Get the Answers Wrong About Screening Stats?
• Confusing Reports On Coffee and Cancer, and What To Do About Breakfast
• Internet-Based Medical Information May Prove More Trustworthy Than Printed Texts
• Considering the Coverage of the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Reactor Breakdowns