Cochrane is a British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers. It includes 53 review groups that are based at research institutions worldwide. Cochrane has approximately 30,000 volunteer experts from around the world.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care in England that publishes guidelines in four areas:
A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on the topic, then analyzes, describes, and summarizes interpretations into a refined conclusion. For example, a systematic review of randomized controlled trials is a way of summarizing and implementing evidence-based medicine.
Sir Iain Geoffrey Chalmers is a British health services researcher, one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration, and coordinator of the James Lind Initiative, which includes the James Lind Library and James Lind Alliance.
Health services research (HSR) became a burgeoning field in North America in the 1960s, when scientific information and policy deliberation began to coalesce. Sometimes also referred to as health systems research or health policy and systems research (HPSR), HSR is a multidisciplinary scientific field that examines how people get access to health care practitioners and health care services, how much care costs, and what happens to patients as a result of this care. HSR utilizes all qualitative and quantitative methods across the board to ask questions of the healthcare system. It focuses on performance, quality, effectiveness and efficiency of health care services as they relate to health problems of individuals and populations, as well as health care systems and addresses wide-ranging topics of structure, processes, and organization of health care services; their use and people's access to services; efficiency and effectiveness of health care services; the quality of healthcare services and its relationship to health status, and; the uses of medical knowledge.
The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) is part of the Faculty of Education and Society at the University College of London. Its work is concerned with systematic reviews which use transparent and explicit methodologies for reviewing research evidence in order to be clear about what we know from research and how we know it.
Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that uses systematic and explicit methods to evaluate the properties and effects of a health technology. Health technology is conceived as any intervention at any point in its lifecycle. HTA aim is to inform "decision-making in order to promote an equitable, efficient, and high-quality health system". It has other definitions including "a method of evidence synthesis that considers evidence regarding clinical effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness and, when broadly applied, includes social, ethical, and legal aspects of the use of health technologies. The precise balance of these inputs depends on the purpose of each individual HTA. A major use of HTAs is in informing reimbursement and coverage decisions by insurers and national health systems, in which case HTAs should include benefit-harm assessment and economic evaluation." And "a multidisciplinary process that summarises information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. Its aim is to inform the formulation of safe, effective, health policies that are patient focused and seek to achieve best value. Despite its policy goals, HTA must always be firmly rooted in research and the scientific method".
Health Technology Assessment is a weekly peer-reviewed open access medical journal published by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), a research partner of the United Kingdom National Health Service. It publishes research on the evaluations of health technologies, their effectiveness, cost and broader impact. The journal was established in 1997 and the editor-in-chief is John Powell (NIHR). According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 4.058. The journal, along with four others, is part of the NIHR Journals Library.
Patient participation is a trend that arose in answer to medical paternalism. Informed consent is a process where patients make decisions informed by the advice of medical professionals.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "improve the health and wealth of the nation through research". The NIHR was established in 2006 under the government's Best Research for Best Health strategy, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. As a research funder and research partner of the NHS, public health and social care, the NIHR complements the work of the Medical Research Council. NIHR focuses on translational research, clinical research and applied health and social care research.
The National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) is a collaboration between the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Centre for Outcomes Research and Effectiveness at University College London (UCL). The NCCMH aims to promote the role of evidence synthesis in making informed judgments about healthcare policy. The NCCMH has a history of developing guidelines, conducting systematic reviews and developing implementation guidance for commissioners and service providers. Formed in 2001, on 1 April 2016 a new guideline development centre, the National Guideline Alliance, based at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists took over the clinical guideline programme that had been run by NCCMH.
The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) is a multi-disciplinary research unit within the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford University. It is located in the Richard Doll Building on the Old Road Campus, in Headington, east Oxford, England.
Lesley Ann Stewart is a Scottish academic whose research interests are in the development and application of evidence synthesis methods, particularly systematic reviews and individual participant data meta-analysis. She is head of department for the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York and director for the NIHR Evidence Synthesis Programme. She was one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993. Stewart served as president of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology (2013-2016) and was a founding co-editor in chief of the academic journal Systematic Reviews (2010–2021).
The Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) is a semi-autonomous research unit under Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health. It was established in 2007 as a non-profit organization in order to take responsibility for appraising a wide range of health technologies and programs, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, interventions, individual and community health promotion, and disease prevention as well as social health policy to inform policy decisions in Thailand. HITAP assumes an advisory role to health governmental authorities by providing rigorous scientific evidence through professional assessment of health data in support of public decision-making. These assessments cover a range of topics including system design, selection of technologies for assessment, and the actual assessment of those selected and agreed upon by relevant government agencies. In this effort, HITAP publishes research and studies in the following areas: methodological development, databases and guidelines; knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) and capacity development; technology assessments on drugs, medical devices, medical procedures, disease prevention and health promotion measures; benefit packages of care – mixing screening and treatments; and other public health policies, e.g. evaluation of Thailand’s government compulsory license policy.
Public involvement, in the context of health and care research, is the term for involving lay people as volunteers in influencing and shaping research. It is a worldwide initiative to give the public an effective, active role in health and care research. The term "health and care" covers healthcare, public health, and social care. The purpose is to align research more closely with patients' and the public’s needs, skills and experience and thereby increase its success and cost-effectiveness.
The Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services previously the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment is an independent Swedish governmental agency tasked with assessing and evaluating methods in use in healthcare and social services. SBU is tasked with summarizing and communicating evidence and is a knowledge center for both healthcare and social services in Sweden. The agency performs review by systematically searching the literature, evaluating, assuring quality, and weighing together results. SBU does not carry out any original research beyond meta-analysis, systematic review or health technology assessment (HTA). It is one of the world's oldest HTA agencies that started conducting systematic reviews in 1987.
Noemi Lois is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Queen's University Belfast and an Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist and Vitreoretinal Surgeon at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
Jane Sandall is professor of social science and women's health at the Women's Health Academic Centre of King's College London. Sandall leads the Maternal Health Services and Policy Research Group in King's Health Partners Women’s Health Academic Centre and is also a lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) South London Applied Research Collaboration. She has authored several Cochrane reviews on midwife-led settings and hundreds of peer-reviewed papers. Her contribution to midwifery and women's health was awarded with an CBE. She also received an honorary doctorate in health sciences from the University of Technology Sydney in 2014.
The Institute of Global Health Innovation is one of Imperial College London’s global challenge Institutes. Established in 2010, its mission is to improve global health and care through evidence-based innovation. The Institute’s work aims to support the identification, development and implementation of healthcare innovation, with the goal of sustainably reducing inequalities in global health.
Nachiappan Chockalingam, professionally known as Nachi Chockalingam is a British scientist, academic practitioner and expert in Clinical Biomechanics. He is a professor at Staffordshire University and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and has been appointed to a panel of experts for the Research Excellence Framework. He was elected as a Fellow of the International Society of Biomechanics in 2023. Between 2016 and 2022, he has contributed to the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Panel and serves in multiple other review panels of global grant awarding bodies including the EPSRC, MRC and the European Commission. He contributed to development of podiatric biomechanics in the UK and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the journals such as the Footwear Science and is on the editorial panel for a number of scientific and clinical journals.
