Some of you may be familiar with the Cochrane Collaboration, an international effort to improve healthcare through the creation of systematic reviews that look at and summarize the best available evidence on medical interventions. There is also a US Cochrane Center. It supports the Collaboration and houses the Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE). The CUE’s mission is as follows:
Empowering consumers, public health policy makers, and healthcare providers to make informed decisions based on the best current evidence through research, education, and advocacy.
Our Bodies Ourselves is a member of the CUE, along with other organizations such as the Black Women’s Health Imperative, National Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health, National Women’s Health Network, and others. The CUE has released an online workshop to help you better understand the concept of evidence-based medicine, navigate medical information, critique research studies, and use that information to advocate for better public policy and healthcare. The workshop is freely available but requires a simple registration. I haven’t been through all of the modules yet, but it looks like a good source for those who want to understand evidence-based medicine and the skills needed to critique the evidence for medical procedures and approaches.