Evidence-based medicine applies the best current evidence in making clinical decision for the treatment of patients. Based on evidence-based medicine, development of practical guidelines and helpful recommendations improve the choice of best treatment options. Evidence-based medicine was described 26 years ago with the establishment of Cochrane Collaboration, which is now known as Cochrane, and came a long way since then.[1] Today, Cochrane is a global network of researchers, professionals, patients, care givers, and the ones who are interested in health and has contributors from more than 130 countries.[2] Cochrane Systematic Reviews are based on high-quality research data and are published in the Cochrane Library. They are established by the Cochrane Review Groups and have become a gold standard in making health decisions.
Rehabilitation is a major concept in medicine and we are aware that providing a proper and adequate rehabilitation program can prevent and treat many disabling conditions. The difficulty in designing high-quality, randomized-controlled trials and systematic reviews indicates why rehabilitation field should be a part of evidence-based medicine. Collaboration with Cochrane can help to overcome these challenges and offers an opportunity to contribute to evidence-based clinical practices.
Cochrane Rehabilitation
Cochrane Rehabilitation was launched in December 2016 as an official field within the Cochrane system. It is of utmost importance in the application of evidence-based medicine and implementation of good-quality evidence in rehabilitation, which would be a pioneer in the development of disabled patients’ healthcare policies in the near future. Cochrane Rehabilitation has six specific goals including connection with stakeholders and individuals for implementation of evidence-based clinical practice in rehabilitation (Goal 1), knowledge translation for Cochrane on reviews relevant to rehabilitation with dissemination to stakeholders (Goal 2), developing a register of Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews relevant to rehabilitation (Goal 3), promoting evidence-based clinical practice, providing education and training on systematic review methods (Goal 4), reviewing and strengthening methodology relevant to evidence-based clinical practice (Goal 5), and finally promoting evidence-based clinical practice in rehabilitation to other Cochrane groups and wider rehabilitation stakeholders (Goal 6).[3,4] In order to actualize these goals, there are different committees which are Communication Committee, Education Committee, Methodology Committee, Publication Committee, and Reviews Committee. Each Committee takes on its own task, and one of these is the Publication Committee which has an important role for the publication of Cochrane Corners in journals.[3-6]
Cochrane Corners
Cochrane Rehabilitation provides the connection between Cochrane and the stakeholders related in the field of rehabilitation. Cochrane Corners focus on disseminating evidence provided by the Cochrane Reviews and gives key messages of the reviews relevant to practice in the field of rehabilitation in a simple and easily understandable style. Cochrane Corners are the cornerstone of Cochrane Knowledge Translation Strategy which allows physicians and healthcare professionals to implement evidence-based clinical practice in the field of rehabilitation. Cochrane Corners also include the comments and key messages with the summary of Cochrane systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.[7,8]
Indeed, our collaboration with the Cochrane Rehabilitation dated back to July 2018 at the 12th ISPRM World Congress in Paris, as the partnership of the Turkish Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (TSPMR) with the Cochrane Rehabilitation, signing a Memorandum of Understanding. In this context, the TSPRM sought to publish the Cochrane Corners in its official Journal, namely the Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Turk J Phys Med Rehab). The agreement on working together between the Turk J Phys Med Rehab and Cochrane Rehabilitation was signed on the date of August 2019. Now, we are very pleased to inform that beginning from this issue, our journal will be the host of Cochrane Corners related to rehabilitation on a regular basis. From our perspective, we hope that this will ensure our readers to reach the latest evidence which they can put into daily clinical practice in the field of rehabilitation.
Yours sincerely,
References
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