What do we do?
Cochrane exists so that healthcare decisions get better.
During the past 20 years, Cochrane has helped to transform the way health decisions are made.
We gather and summarize the best evidence from research to help you make informed choices about treatment.
Who is Cochrane for?
Cochrane is for anyone who is interested in using high-quality information to make health decisions. Whether you are a doctor or nurse, patient or carer, researcher or funder, Cochrane evidence provides a powerful tool to enhance your healthcare knowledge and decision making.
Everyone has a role to play so please get involved.
Who are we?
We are a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health.
Cochrane contributors - 37,000 from more than 130 countries - work together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. Many of our contributors are world leaders in their fields - medicine, health policy, research methodology, or consumer advocacy - and our groups are situated in some of the world's most respected academic and medical institutions.
Our work is recognized as representing an international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.
How do we do this?
Cochrane's contributors are affiliated to the organization through Cochrane groups: healthcare subject-related review groups, thematic networks, groups concerned with the methodology of systematic reviews, and regional centres. (Learn more about our organisational structure.)
There is no one place or office that is 'Cochrane'. Our contributors and groups are based all around the world and the majority of our work is carried out online. Each group is a 'mini-organization' in itself, with its own funding, website, and workload. Contributors affiliate themselves to a group, or in some cases several groups, based on their interests, expertise, and/or geographical location.
We do not accept commercial or conflicted funding. This is vital for us to generate authoritative and reliable information, working freely, unconstrained by commercial and financial interests.
Who is Cochrane Germany?
The work of Cochrane Review Groups, Methods Groups, Fields/Networks and the Consumer Network is facilitated in different ways by the work of 14 Cochrane Centres around the world. They share responsibility for helping to co-ordinate and support members of Cochrane in areas such as training, and they promote the objectives of Cochrane at national level. We - Cochrane Germany - are responsible for Germany, Liechtenstein as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Switzerland is represented by the Swiss Cochrane Centre in Lausanne. The Austrian Branch of the German Cochrane Centre (ÖCZ) is responsible for Austria. In June 2014, the Hungarian Branch of Cochrane Germany was funded at the University of Pécs.