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http://www.cochrane.org/features/brazilian-cochrane-centre-turns-15
Dear Cochrane Collaboration Members
This year, the Brazilian Cochrane Centre (BCC) celebrates its 15th anniversary!
We would like to thank all BCC members and numerous external collaborators, as well as several Brazilian government institutions, for their generous and unrestricted support throughout these years.
We are very pleased to present a brief summary of the main accomplishments of the BCC since its inauguration in 1996, under the thoughtful gaze of Sir Ian Chalmers.
· The Cochrane Library became freely available to Brazil and later this was extended to all Latin America and Caribbean countries. This was possible thanks to an initial partnership with the Pan American Health Organization, which has now been substituted by CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior- Brazilian Coordinating Agency for the Improvement of Higher Education Professionals). · In cooperation with the post-graduation program of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics of São Paulo Federal University, over these years, the BCC has also served as a “research laboratory” and teaching center for more than 200 graduate students of health related programs. The Center has helped students and university professors to produce Cochrane Systemic Reviews that have contributed to masters´ and doctoral theses and professorship degrees. · Since December 2002, the BCC website offers a free online course (in Portuguese) that offers basic information and concepts on how to prepare systematic reviews and conduct meta-analyses. The number of hits in this course´s main page reached 12,276 visits between March and August 2010. The main webpage of the BCC has more than 1,500,000 hits per year. · Over the years, the BCC team of research assistants has conducted dozens of high quality systematic reviews commissioned by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, following the Cochrane methodology and standards. The federal government estimates that these reviews have saved the country´s public health system an average of 5 billion US dollars per year. · Since 2007, the BCC has been offering a year-long Continued Medical Education course (two hours/week) on Evidence-Based Healthcare through a videoconference system. This free national course is available to remote regions of the country and was possible thanks to a successful partnership between the BCC, the Brazilian Ministry of Health and the research department of a private hospital (Syrian-Lebanese Hospital). The BCC team is responsible for organizing, coordinating and teaching this course. Over 10,000 health professionals and policy makers have been trained in this course up to 2011 and many relevant studies have been produced by the students that participated in this course. · The BCC team offers continuous education and training to the public servants of the Brazilian Health Technology Assessment Network (REBRATS), an agency that works for the Brazilian Ministry of Health´s Department of Science, Technology and Strategic Supplies. · The BCC broadcasts a weekly one-hour TV show, for the whole country, presenting scientific evidences relevant to health and law professionals, as well as patients. · A few years ago, the BCC had the honor of organizing the first Cochrane Colloquium ever held in Latin America, an event that congregated over 800 participants from dozens of countries and contributed to bringing the Cochrane Collaboration to the attention of Brazilian consumers and health professionals. Recently, members of BCC were closely involved (Dr. Alvaro was the scientific chair) with a national meeting of the Scientific Committee of Health Technological Assessment held in Rio de Janeiro, in 2011. It was a unique opportunity to disseminate the methods of the Cochrane Collaboration to professionals in charge of HTA in several countries. · Since 2008, o BCC has made important partnerships with the area of Law (National Council of Justice, General Attorney´s Office, and National Council of Public Promoters) through formal technical-institutional cooperation agreements. The objectives of this new cooperation are to improve the education and knowledge of lawyers and judges towards health-related topics and to help them use the best available evidence in their judicial sentences. · In recognition for the work of the BCC, the president of Brazil - Luis Inácio Lula da Silva visited our institution in 2010. · On March 29, 2011 the Brazilian Ministry of Health issued a national ordinance (number 625) to standardize clinical practice guidelines (“Guideline for Adaptation of Clinical Practice Guidelines"), which states that Cochrane Systematic Reviews should be considered as the main source of evidences for the process of producing clinical guidelines in Brazil.
Throughout these years the BCC has strived to disseminate high quality knowledge and to construct strong bonds of trust and respect with several national partners, with the main objective of creating a new culture of Evidence-Based Medicine (now EB-Health) in Brazil. The reward of these efforts culminated this year, with the promulgation of a federal law (number 12.401, copy attached) on April 28 2011. This law mandates that the National Council for the Incorporation of Technologies should base their recommendations on the incorporation of new technologies in the Brazilian national health system on scientific evidence of efficacy, effectiveness, safety and accuracy, as well as comparative economical assessment of benefits and costs. Although the importance and significance of this federal law are uncontestable, we know that our work is still in the beginning.
Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those who stood by us throughout these 15 years and who contributed to the growth and consolidation of the Brazilian Cochrane Center and to its main objective, which is the definitive implementation of a culture of Evidence Based Health in Brazil, through the development and dissemination of Cochrane Systematic Reviews.
Thanks! Alvaro N. Atallah and Brazilian Cochrane Centre Team
AGUARDE: II CONGRESSO DE DIREITO À SAÚDE BASEADA EM EVIDÊNCIAS ASSISTA AGORA: DEBATES SOBRE MEDICINA BASEADA EM EVIDÊNCIAS E DIREITO A SAÚDE NO JORNAL DA JUSTIÇA http://www.dailymotion.com/centrocochranebr
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