Synthesising evidence to maximise impact
High-quality evidence syntheses reviews are essential for evidence-based practice. Systematic reviews are evidence syntheses which answer important questions using high-quality methods to combine the results of primary research studies. These inform clinical guidelines and help ensure that patients get the best possible care. Our team has expertise in conducting high-quality systematic reviews which bring together evidence to inform evidence-based stroke care and work to improve the methods in this field, including the involvement of patients and the public within systematic reviews and the development of methods for synthesis and analysis of data within complex rehabilitation reviews.
Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of primary research in health care and policy and are internationally recognised as the highest standard in evidence-based health care. They investigate the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
The Cochrane Stroke Group is based in Edinburgh and has been part of Cochrane since 1993. Cochrane Stroke produces and maintains up-to-date Cochrane reviews about the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation for people with stroke.
Members of our Living with Stroke research group play key roles within Cochrane Stroke:
- Dr Alex Todhunter-Brown is joint Co-ordinating Editor
- Prof Marian Brady is an Associate Editor
- Prof Frederike van Wijck is an Editor
- Several group members are authors, including Christine Hazelton, Pauline Campbell, Maggie Lawrence, Jo Booth, Fiona Coupar.
More about Cochrane Stroke and the Editorial team can be found here.
What we review
We are a leading centre for Cochrane systematic reviews relating to stroke rehabilitation interventions. Cochrane Stroke reviews conducted by our team cover topics such as yoga, oral health, speech and language therapy for aphasia, ability to sit-to-stand, physical rehabilitation approaches, visual field defects, fatigue, executive dysfunction, spatial neglect, bilateral arm training, home-based arm therapy, eye movement disorders, and age-related visual problems.
Our team have done a number of overviews of reviews and worked on developing methods in this area. We conducted Cochrane Stroke’s first overview of reviews which relates to arm function.
We also work in partnership with Cochrane Rehabilitation. Cochrane Rehabilitation is an international network of Cochrane authors, rehabilitation professionals and patient organisations which aims to support and facilitate the delivery of evidence-based clinical practice. More about Cochrane Rehabilitation can be found here.
Our key activities
The involvement in research of people, including patients, their families and carers, health professionals and others, improves the quality, relevance and impact of health research. Our team play a leading international role in the development of innovative methods of involving patients, carers and health professionals in systematic reviews. Key activities include:
- Involving people in our systematic reviews. An example of this was selected by NIHR as an example of ‘Co-production in Action’.
- Developing the content of Cochrane’s ‘Involving People’ training resource
- Leading a chapter on patient and public involvement in systematic reviews for the Guidelines International Network (GIN).
- Collaborating with Cochrane Methods Equity and multiple international stakeholders on work relating to stakeholder engagement in guideline development.
Systematic reviews conducted by our team are carefully planned to involve people to maximise impact. For example, the PIONEER project is working in partnership with a group of stroke survivors and health professionals; key decisions relating to aspects of our Cochrane review of physical rehabilitation approaches were developed with involvement of stroke survivors, carers and physiotherapists.
