The Cochrane Collaboration was launched in October 1993, and so is just emerging from infancy and developing into toddlerhood. The Collaboration is a network of individuals, and its objectives are to prepare, maintain and disseminate systematic reviews of the effects of health care. This is a huge challenge. To illustrate just how huge, achieving even the first of these objectives will take a considerable time, as it can take up to five years to prepare a proper systematic review. Currently there are no Cochrane reviews available for dissemination, but the first will appear early in 1995.
Reviews published in journals are often out of date by the time they are published.
Cochrane reviews will be published electronically and updated when this is appropriate. They will therefore be dynamic and changing to take into account new evidence as soon as it is available. The CRGs focus on health problems. The work of the CRGs and the Fields is facilitated in a variety of ways by the various Cochrane centres. 1,000 people involved More than 1,000 people from over 50 countries are either already contributing to the work of the Collaboration, or have indicated their desire to contribute.