The Cochrane Library for Consumers
About 2/3 of all visitors to Cochrane.org goes to Cochrane Summaries, so the new website is an important way to reach out to the consumers. This site has been redesigned with consumers as the primary audience.
Visit Cochrane Summaries, at http://summaries.cochrane.org.
New Features
Each Cochrane Review summary page displays the full plain language summary and provides links to the abstract, other reviews by the same review group, the full review on TheCochraneLibrary.com and podcasts, journal clubs, PEARLS, and news items where these are available. The bottom of the summary page has an automatically generated list of reviews on similar topics with links to their summary pages.
Visit http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD001269/vaccines-to-prevent-influenza-in-healthy-adults to see a Cochrane Review summary page that contains all of these elements.
Health Topic Portals
For some frequently searched health topics, special search results “portals” have been developed in partnership with the relevant Cochrane Review Group. The aim of these pages is to present a series of reviews and information in a way that makes it easier for consumers to find what they need. Each portal includes a consumer-friendly set of topics to browse the reviews.
Try typing “asthma” into the search box to see the Asthma portal.
How to use Cochrane Summaries
The following orientation may be helpful in navigating this site for the first time. The site is designed with four different sorts of pages – a main search/browse page that appears when you first open the site, results pages that display the results of your current search or browse, Cochrane summary pages that display the plain language summary and abstract for an individual review, and portal pages that focus on topic specific information.
The main search page is meant to be a clean Google-like interface with a prominent search box. When you type a word in the search box, other relevant terms will appear below the search box. Try misspelling a word, just for fun. Clicking the browse link below the search box brings up a series of “Categories” on the left hand side of the page. These are identical to the browse categories on TheCochraneLibrary.com. If you click browse, you will open a results page with a list of the reviews most in demand.
The results pages will provide a list of all the reviews that match your search. Clicking through the browse options on this page will enable you to narrow down the choices. If you click “Other browse options” you will see an additional set of categories that include all of the Cochrane Review Group names. At any point in a search or browse, the tabs under the search box can be used to display only new or updated reviews, reviews with a podcast, or reviews for which the Primary Health Care Field has produced one of their PEARLS (Practical Evidence About Real Life Situations).
Please visit the site and notice the “Tell us what you think” link in the bottom-left of the search box and fill out the very brief feedback form. Your feedback as consumers is very valuable to the success of this site.