A valedictory by Professor Paul Garner: Truth not Triumph: backstage at Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group

With experience as a doctor in the UK NHS and in Papula New Guinea, Paul Garner was part of the team that set up Cochrane. This organization successfully mainstreamed systematic reviews globally as a method and has been highly influential in institutionalising their use in formal guideline development at the World Health Organization. 

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, News and events:

8 September 2022

"Investigative journalism in global infectious diseases research"

Deborah Cohen is an award winning medically qualified TV, print and radio reporter (i.e. BBC Radio 4's File on Four), as well as being an editor on The BMJ. She has investigated and produced documentaries about drug companies and academic institutions manipulation of the evidence, ranging from pandemic flu “conspiracies”,

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Seminar Series: 14 February 2018

Mefloquine is one of four antimalarial agents commonly recommended for preventing malaria in travellers to malaria-endemic areas. Despite its high efficacy, there is controversy about its psychological side effects. In this short video, Cochrane author Dr Maya Tickell-Painter, talks about the effectiveness and side effects of mefloquine following the publication of two reviews:

• Tickell-Painter M, Maayan N, Saunders R, Pace C, Sinclair D. Mefloquine for preventing malaria during travel to endemic areas. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2017, Issue 10. Art. No.: CD006491. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006491.pub4 
  
  
• Tickell-Painter  M, Saunders R, Maayan N, Lutje V, Mateo-Urdiales A, Garner P. Deaths and parasuicides associated with mefloquine chemoprophylaxis: A systematic review. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease 2017
  www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893917301667?via%3Dihub
  
  31 October 2017

Cochrane and WHO meet in Geneva, April 2017

27 June 2017

Evidence for population health improvement: can genomics help? 

George Davey Smith, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Seminar Series: 15 March 2017

Medical Journals and the Medicalization of Global Health
Jocalyn Clark, Executive Editor at The Lancet

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Seminar Series: 15 February 2017

Systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy in infectious diseases
Dr Mariska Leeflang, Department of Epidemiology, Statistics and Informatics, Amsterdam Medical University, Amsterdam

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Seminar Series: 24 November 2016

Uses and limits of research evidence in shaping global HIV policy and practice

Dr Nathan Ford, Department of HIV/AIDS and Global Hepatitis Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Seminar Series: 3 February 2016

Leverhulme Lecture 2015: Ecstasies and agonies of evidence synthesis

Professor Jimmy Volmink (Director of Cochrane South Africa; Dean of Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University)

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM); 17 November 2015

How to make a case for deworming

Professor Paul Garner (LSTM) and Dr David Taylor Robinson (University of Liverpool)

Breakout session from The Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases; Philadelphia, 22 October 2015

2014 Cochrane Colloquium
Plenary 4 - Capacity Development: Challenges & Innovations

Cochrane Profile: Prathap Tharyan
Cochrane 20 Video Series, 4 September 2013

Systematic reviews and international development by Professor Paul Garner
HEART talks, posted on 14 May 2013

Twenty years of The Cochrane Collaboration:
Looking back on the search for evidence
Cochrane 20 Video Series, published on 10 January 2013

Malaria research: making an impact in Nigeria
3rd October 2011

Martin Meremikwu, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Calabar, Nigeria talks about his work on a Cochrane Systematic Review about giving drugs to help prevent malaria illness in young children living in malaria areas. He also describes how evidence-based research is influencing policy in Nigeria, and how the local media around Calabar are also recognising the importance of an evidence-base to inform the health care stories that they cover. He considers how the young staff at the University of Calabar are demanding high quality evidence-based research, partly as a result of their involvement in The Cochrane Collaboration. Professor Meremikwu is interviewed by Paul Garner, Director of the EHCRC and Co-ordinating Editor of the CIDG.

Malaria research: making an impact in Uganda
28 October 2011

Hasifa Bukirwa from Uganda, talks here about her work on Cochrane reviews in malaria treatment and how she then went on to run clinical trials in this area. Hasifa is now a Medical Epidemiologist, Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention. Her review of ‘LapDap’ (chlorproguanil-dapsone) helped clarify some of the adverse effects outlined in the early trials, and was used by the WHO in decisions about next steps with this drug.

Global malaria policy: the impact of research synthesis
15 August 2011

How accurate are rapid diagnostic tests in malaria? Piero Olliaro, Leader for Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization/Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO/TDR) talks about how a Cochrane Systematic Review published in 2011 fits into the landscape of global malaria policy, and describes how evidence has influenced WHO malaria treatment recommendations for malaria treatment over the last 15 years. Dr. Olliaro talks to Paul Garner, Director of the EHCRC and Co-ordinating Editor of the CIDG.

Saving lives: global expert on research and research synthesis in community child health
July 2011

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Chair of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Aga Khan University in Pakistan, talks about community child health evidence-based approaches in developing countries, and gives advice to aspiring health professionals interested in this area. Professor Bhutta is involved with 45 Cochrane Reviews, is internationally recognised as a leader in his field, and heads a research team.

Dr Peter Olumese from the World Health Organization's Global Malaria Programme talks about the new edition of Malaria Treatment Guidelines