Cochrane Collaboration welcomes patient participation

EDITOR—The Cochrane Collaboration is an international non-profit organisation. It aims to help people make well informed decisions about health care by preparing, maintaining, and promoting the accessibility of systematic reviews on the effects of healthcare interventions. One of the groups contributing to this task is the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group, which is based in Australia and has an international editorial group.

This review group undertakes systematic reviews of interventions (particularly those that focus on information and communication) which affect consumers' interactions with healthcare professionals, services, and researchers. The interventions may relate to the individual's use of healthcare services (for example, communication between consumers and health professionals during consultations and throughout episodes of care) or to consumer participation in healthcare planning, policy, and research.

Outcomes that the group is interested in reviewing include effects on people's knowledge and decision making, their use of health care, their experience of health care, health and wellbeing, and healthcare systems. (Additional information about our protocols and about reviews that are in progress is available from www.dhs.vic.gov.au/ahs/quality/cochrane.htm)

The review group welcomes contributions. There are a number of ways in which both consumers and professionals can become involved including hand searching journals, participating in a team preparing a review, by providing information and relevant literature in a subject area of interest, and by being willing to be consulted or act as a referee.