Pružanje skrbi i strategije samostalne skrbi djece s epilepsijom Dosadašnje spoznaje Epilepsija je poremećaj koji utječe na živčani sustav djece i odraslih. Do epileptičkih napadaja dolazi zbog pretjerane i abnormalne aktivnosti mozga, a učestalost napadaja ne može se predvidjeti. Lijekovi protiv napadaja i drugi oblici liječenja mogu spriječiti većinu napadaja, ali epilepsija može uzrokovati probleme u društvu, školi ili na radnome mjestu te time otežava samostalan život. Osobe koje pate od napadaja često imaju fizičke probleme (npr. prijelome, modrice i nešto veći rizik od iznenadne...

Oblozi uz negativni tlak za zatvorene kirurške rane Ključne poruke Terapija rane negativnim tlakom (TRNT) vjerojatno smanjuje više infekcija kirurških rana nego standardni oblozi u osoba sa zatvorenim ranama nakon operacije. TRNT vjerojatno ne utječe na broj osoba kod kojih je došlo do ponovnog otvaranja rane (dehiscencije) nakon operacije i može imati neznatan ili nikakav utjecaj na broj umrlih. TRNT može povećati broj osoba s plikovima na koži nakon operacije, ali može imati neznatan ili nikakav utjecaj na druge ishode. Isplativost TRNT-a i pouzdanost ovih zaključaka ovisi o vrsti...

Korištenje probiotika za sprječavanje Hirschsprungova enterokolitisa Istraživačko pitanje Koje su prednosti i rizici korištenja probiotika za sprječavanje Hirschsprungova enterokolitisa (engl. Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis, HAEC)? Ključne poruke Uspoređeni su randomizirani kontrolirani pokusi (RCT) koji su koristili probiotike i placebo (ili bilo koje drugo liječenje u kojem se ne koriste probiotici) za prevenciju Hirschsprungova enterokolitisa. Trenutno nema dovoljno dokaza za procjenu učinkovitosti ili sigurnosti probiotika za prevenciju Hirschsprungova enterokolitisa. Što je...

Monday, April 25, 2022

Cochrane wants to welcome people, no matter who they are or where they live. The more varied perspectives we have, the better we can provide evidence to help inform health and healthcare decisions.

In October 2021, we launched our listening and learning exercise that aimed to gather data, views and experiences regarding diversity and inclusion in Cochrane. Between October and January we heard from over 1,300 people and we are pleased to publish the findings in this new report.

We encourage everyone to read this report and we have made a summary of the report available in multiple languages to increase accessibility.

Chris Champion, Head of People Services, says

“Cochrane is a worldwide organisation that aspires to be diverse and inclusive. We want everyone to be able to participate in Cochrane, regardless of who they are and where they come from. This matters to Cochrane, because if we are more inclusive, we will be able to provide better and more relevant evidence to our users who are at the heart of our vision.”

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this important process. It is clear that we can do a lot more to be a diverse and inclusive organisation, so the important work starts now as we take action in response to these findings.

• Read the report

Monday, April 25, 2022

Operacija na oba oka istog dana ili na zasebne dane: što je bolje za liječenje katarakte na oba oka? Ključne poruke - trenutni dokazi pokazuju kako postoje neznatne razlike između operacija očiju istog dana (engl. immediate sequential bilateral surgery, ISBCS) ili na zasebne dane (engl. delayed sequential bilateral surgery, DSBCS) za sljedeće kliničke ishode: očne infekcije (endoftalmitis, ozbiljna i opasna za vid, ali rijetka komplikacija), korekcijske naočale nakon operacije (refrakcija), komplikacije vida s korekcijskim naočalama (prema potrebi) te za ishode koje opisuju pacijenti (engl....

Psihoterapijsko liječenje depresije i anksioznosti u pacijenata s demencijom i blagim kognitivnim oštećenjem Ključni rezultati - Psihoterapija u obliku kognitivno-bihevioralne terapije (koja je usmjerena na promjenu mišljenja i ponašanja) vjerojatno ima mali pozitivan učinak na depresiju, kvalitetu života i svakodnevne aktivnosti ljudi s demencijom ili blagim kognitivnim oštećenjem. - Nema dovoljno dokaza za donošenje zaključaka o učinkovitosti psihoterapije u liječenju anksioznih poremećaja kod osoba s demencijom ili blagim kognitivnom oštećenjem. - Potrebno je više dokaza o različitim...

Obogaćivanje soli željezom i jodom ili samim jodom za poboljšanje statusa željeza i joda Ključne poruke Dvostruko obogaćena sol (sol obogaćena željezom i jodom) u usporedbi sa samo jodiranom soli može poboljšati vrijednosti povezane s konzumacijom željeza i joda, poput koncentracije hemoglobina (tvari koja daje boju crvenim krvnim stanicama) i zaliha željeza u organizmu. No to može smanjiti koncentraciju joda u mokraći i imati slab ili nikakav utjecaj na koncentraciju feritina (proteina za pohranu zalihe željeza) i receptora transferina (proteina koji utječu na unos željeza). U usporedbi s...

Salary: £35,326 per annum
Contract type: Full-time Fixed term until March 2024
Closing date: 15 May 2022

LSTM’s Centre for Evidence Synthesis in Global Health runs the “Research, Evidence and Development Initiative” (READ-It) and contains the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group (CIDG). The CIDG was established in 1995. They are world leaders in evidence synthesis related to public health in the tropics. They have a wide portfolio of Cochrane reviews in malaria and neglected tropical diseases, amongst other topics.

Teams are already in place for some of the reviews and they have experienced technical specialists in all areas. The successful candidate will assure the delivery of a portfolio of high-quality Cochrane reviews according to LSTM’s strategic plan.   You will be part of the READ-It Management Team and assure the delivery of the CIDG Partners deliverables.

Key Responsibilities are (but not limited to):

• Provide editorial feedback to the Managing Editor throughout the review life cycle
• To stay up to date with Cochrane methods, standards, and procedures and ensure reviews are in compliance
• Work with the CIDG team in ensuring efficient and effective editorial processes are in place
• Assessing technical and academic aspects of reports from READ-It Partners, and the draft READ-It annual reports to funders
• Actively manage review delivery and report and discuss progress of Liverpool associated outputs with the READ-It Management Team
• Participate in READ-It Management Team meetings, Partner meetings, and Advisory Group meetings
• Liaise with READ-It Liverpool staff and the Head of the Department of Clinical Sciences (DoCS) to assure appropriate line management including the performance conversation process
• Assure delivery of the CIDG strategic plan in relation to reviews by supporting teams and helping overcome review production obstacles
• Work with stakeholders, editors, and the CRG strategic advisory group in taking on new topics and teams in line with priorities, stakeholder needs and CIDG capacity
• Deliver seminars for Diploma and Master students
• Actively contribute to submissions for grant funding

The Candidate will ideally be:

Candidates must be experienced in Cochrane systematic reviews to work in our Liverpool team and with our global partners to help assure the delivery of the CIDG strategic plan. 

• Hold a Postgraduate professional qualification, such as the Diploma of Tropical Medicine, or health-related Masters’ degree
• Have knowledge of systematic reviews and RCT trial basics
• Have knowledge and an interest in LMICs and infectious disease problems
• Understand qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Be experienced in the critical appraisal of medical literature at postgraduate level

For a confidential discussion about this role, please contact Paul Garner at: Paul.Garner@lstmed.ac.uk(link sends e-mail)

Additional benefits of joining LSTM:

• 30 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, plus Christmas closure days
• Generous occupational pension schemes
• Government backed “cycle to work” scheme.
• Affiliated, discounted staff membership to the University of Liverpool Sports Centre
• Plus, a host of additional family friendly policies

Closing Date: 15th May 2022 
More information and to apply: https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/research-associate-66636

Tuesday, April 19, 2022 Category: Jobs

Pomaže li liječenje bolesti desni u kontroli razine šećera u krvi osobama sa šećernom bolešću? Cilj sustavnog pregleda Glavno pitanje ovog Cochraneovog sustavnog pregleda: koliko je učinkovito liječenje desni u kontroliranju razine šećera u krvi (kontrola glikemije) u osoba s dijabetesom u odnosu na nikakvo aktivno liječenje ili uobičajenu skrb? Dosadašnje spoznaje Cilj liječenja parodontitisa je smanjenje oticanja i infekcije te stabilizacija stanja zubnog mesa i potporne kosti. Razina šećera u krvi u osoba s dijabetesom je previsoka pa je ključni problem održavanje razine šećera u krvi pod...

Može li usredotočena svjesnost pomoći ljudima da prestanu pušiti? Ključne poruke - Trenutno nema jasnih dokaza da liječenje temeljeno na usredotočenoj svjesnosti pomaže ljudima da prestanu pušiti ili da poboljšava njihovo mentalno zdravlje i dobrostanje. - Međutim, naše je povjerenje u dokaze vrlo nisko, a daljnji dokazi vjerojatno će promijeniti naše zaključke. Što je usredotočena svjesnost (engl. mindfulness)? Usredotočena svjesnost uključuje usmjeravanje pažnje na svoje misli i osjećaje te njihovo promatranje bez osuđivanja dok nastaju i prolaze. Vjeruje se da usredotočena svjesnost...

Monday, April 11, 2022

Specifications: Full Time 1 year Fixed Term contract/Consultancy contract
Salary:  £25,540 per annum
Location: Flexible (remote)
Application Closing Date: 22 April 2022 (midnight GMT)

Cochrane has established a Central Editorial Service to support the efficient and timely publication of high-quality systematic reviews in the Cochrane Library. The reviews that are published through the Central Editorial Service address some of the research questions considered to be the most important to decision makers. The Central Editorial Service is also instrumental in running a pilot aiming to improve editorial independence and efficiency within Cochrane. The Editorial Assistant role will play a key role in operationalising this pilot.

The Editorial Assistant will perform editorial tasks to support the smooth running of the Editorial Service. Tasks will include, but are not limited to: performing checks on manuscripts on submission and before publication; supporting the peer-review process including inviting peer reviewers and tracking progress; assisting authors and peer reviewers to use Cochrane’s Editorial Management System; running editorial reports for the Editorial Service Executive Editor; arranging and preparing documents for editorial meetings; and supporting the Head of Editorial in projects aimed at improving or developing editorial systems and processes.
Cochrane is a global independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making the vast amounts of evidence generated through research useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by identifying, appraising and synthesizing individual research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed.

For further information on the role and how to apply, please click here.  The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples. Note that we will assess applications as they are received, and therefore may fill the post before the deadline.
Deadline for applications: 22 April 2022 (midnight GMT).

Friday, April 8, 2022 Category: Jobs

New Cochrane Review: Control interventions in randomised trials for people with a mental health disorder

KEY MESSAGES

• Researchers use many different control interventions in randomized trials on treatments for patients with mental health disorders, but there is little consensus on how to report and adequately design these controls. This practice has widespread consequences for the evidence base underpinning psychiatric treatments
• The choice, design and reporting of a control intervention is just as important as the experimental treatment in a randomized trial with psychiatric patients. This is not reflected in most randomized trials with mental health patients, as control interventions are often poorly reported upon and lack methodological rigor
• Some psychiatric treatments may be recommended based on just having compared the treatment with a waitlist or no-treatment control in a randomized trial, which may give a misleading picture of how effective the treatment is

Erlend Faltinsen, lead author,  commented, "There is a need to develop methodological guidelines on how to design and report upon control interventions in randomized trials on psychiatric treatments, as trialists working in the field of mental health do not have a solid evidence-based framework to draw from on this issue."

Why was this review conducted?
The review investigates the beneficial and harmful effects between different control interventions in randomized trials with mental health patients. We wanted to investigate how control interventions differ from each other and to lay the empirical groundwork to develop methodological guidelines on reporting, and the design of control interventions in psychiatric randomized trials.

What did the authors do?
The authors conducted a Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the benefits and harms between placebo, usual care (or treatment as usual) and waitlist controls versus receiving no treatment.  In that way they assessed how effective and harmful different control interventions in psychiatric randomized trials are.

What did they find?

• 96 randomized trials were included and the trials involved 15 different types of mental health disorders
• When combining three different types of placebos, the beneficial effects compared with no-treatment or wait-list controls was small to moderate
• There was no significant difference between usual care controls and wait-list or no-treatment on benefits. The same was true for waitlist versus no-treatment controls
• Psychological placebos (non-active controls used mostly in psychotherapy research) showed moderate effects compared with no treatment whereas placebos used for physical treatments like surgery showed a small effect. We found no significant effects of pharmacological placebos versus no treatment
• There was little data on harms between the control interventions and the findings on harms were insignificant
• The control interventions were mostly poorly reported upon and there was little rationale for why a given control was used in most reports

What are the limitations of the evidence?
The certainty of the evidence was rated low to very low, and the risk of bias was rated high in all studies. The authors mostly included randomized trials with three intervention arms to compare two controls, which causes issues with blinding of participants and trial personnel. This limitation was due to the methodological objective of the review and may be viewed as part of the review itself rather than a flaw in the evidence-base. Many of the studies were small, however, leading to risk of small-study effects, which limits the evidence.

What gaps did the authors identify?
There is a need to develop methodological guidelines on control interventions in psychiatric randomized trials, as trialists working in the field of mental health do not have a solid evidence-based framework to work from when choosing and reporting upon controls

What important related questions were not addressed in this review?
The review did not compare usual care with placebo interventions, which would have been relevant. It did not quantify the level of reporting issues and rationale for choosing a control in a psychiatric randomized trial, which also would have been relevant.

Who will find this review most relevant?
Psychiatric researchers and especially those who conduct randomized trials will find the review relevant for their research work. It may also appeal to trialists in general and methodologists.

How up to date is this review?
The search was conducted in March 2018. The researchers were not able to screen records after this date, since the search process was very large and extracting data was exceptionally time-consuming.

• Read the full review here
• Visit the Cochrane Methodology Group page

Friday, April 8, 2022

Koliko su točne virtualne procjene na daljinu u dijagnosticiranju demencije? Zašto je ovo pitanje važno? Demencija je kronično i progresivno stanje koje utječe na ljudsko pamćenje i sposobnost svakodnevnog funkcioniranja. Klinička dijagnoza demencije obično uključuje snimanje mozga, fizikalne preglede i uzimanje anamneze. Kao prvi korak, često koristimo testove pamćenja i razmišljanja kako bismo identificirali osobe kojima je potrebna daljnja procjena. Tradicionalno ovi se testovi izvode uživo, ali modifikacije testova dopuštaju korištenje telefonom ili putem videopoziva – što se ponekad...

Usporedba uskopojasnog snimanja s običnom cistoskopijom za liječenje raka mokraćnog mjehura Istraživačko pitanje Kako se resekcija tkiva mokraćnog mjehura vođena posebnom metodom vizualizacije koja se zove uskopojasno snimanje može usporediti s resekcijom tkiva mokraćnog mjehura vođenom standardnom metodom vizualizacije (koristeći bijelo svjetlo) u osoba s tumorima unutarnje stijenke mjehura? Dosadašnje spoznaje Kada postoji sumnja na rak mokraćnog mjehura ili uz već postavljenu dijagnozu raka mokraćnog mjehura, liječnici moraju pomno pregledati mjehur i uzeti tkiva radi daljnje analize....

Specifications: Full Time 1 year Fixed Term contract
Salary:  £42,000 per annum
Location: UK based (remote)
Application Closing Date: 25 April 2022 (9am GMT)

Cochrane is a global independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making the vast amounts of evidence generated through research useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by identifying, appraising and synthesizing individual research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed.

A Project Manager role has become available to support the Evidence Production and Methods Department (EPM), Publishing and Technology department (P&T), Cochrane Library Product Manager and other Central Executive Teams (CET) in delivering on high priority projects: to project manage the highest priority EPM, P&T and other Cochrane projects where appropriate.

Key essential criteria we are looking for:

• Project Management qualification
• Publishing experience
• 2-4 years’ experience in project management, change management and risk management. Proven track record in delivering projects
• Experience of Agile project management methodology
• Experience with project management software tools e.g. Microsoft Project, JIRA, Confluence, SmartSheets

For further information on the role and how to apply, please click here.  The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples. Note that we will assess applications as they are received, and therefore may fill the post before the deadline.

Deadline for applications: Monday 25 April 2022 (9am GMT).

Thursday, April 7, 2022 Category: Jobs

Cochrane’s Governing Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Catherine Spencer as Cochrane’s new Chief Executive Officer. 

Catherine joins Cochrane from The Seafarers’ Charity where she held the position of CEO.

Prior to her role at The Seafarers’ Charity, Catherine was acting Chief Operating Officer and Director of Communications and Change Management at international public health research organisation, icddrb, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Between 2008-2015 Catherine held various senior management roles at the Army Families Federation, including three years as Chief Executive.

Governing Board Co-Chairs, Tracey Howe and Catherine Marshall said: "We are delighted to welcome Catherine to Cochrane. Catherine is a proven Chief Executive with an exceptional record leading non-profit organisations. She brings expertise in strategic planning, change management, and communications backed by a global perspective. Catherine is well positioned to partner with the Editor-in-Chief, Karla Soares-Weiser, to lead Cochrane as we drive an exciting programme of delivering trusted evidence, promoting informed decisions, and better health.”

Catherine lives with her family in Wiltshire, England after many years moving frequently, including living and working in Canada, Germany, Cyprus and Bangladesh.

Catherine will take up the position as CEO in July 2022.

• Read Catherine’s full bio

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Sustavni pregled o lijeku takrolimusu za liječenje ulceroznog kolitisa koji se teško liječi Cilj Cochraneovog sustavnog pregleda Željeli smo saznati je li takrolimus učinkovit i siguran lijek u osoba s ulceroznim kolitisom koji se teško liječi na bilo koji drugi način. Dosadašnje spoznaje Ulcerozni kolitis je kronična upalna bolest crijeva obilježena ponavljajućim epizodama aktivne bolesti, koje obično pogađaju rektum ili debelo crijevo ili oboje. Osobe s aktivnom bolešću mogu imati grčeve u trbuhu, pojačani nagon za stolicom i krvavi proljev. Standardni oblici liječenja za aktivnu bolest...

Medicinske intervencije za liječenje kronične upale nosa i sinusa u cističnoj fibrozi Istraživačko pitanje Kakvi su učinci medicinskih intervencija za kronični rinosinuitis na osobe s cističnom fibrozom? Dosadašnje spoznaje Kronični rinosinusitis dugotrajna je infekcija i upala nosne šupljine i prostora oko očiju i nosa koji su ispunjeni zrakom. Cistična fibroza genetska je bolest zbog koje sekreti u tijelu postaju gusti i zbog toga zaostaju. Kada se to dogodi unutar i oko nosa, to izaziva kronični rinosinusitis. Bolja briga o osobama s cističnom fibrozom produžila je njihov životni vijek,...