News from the Co-Chairs of the 15th
Cochrane Colloquium (23-27 October 2007,
REGISTRATION
The deadline for early bird registration is approaching (30 July 2007). You can now pay your
registration online or by fax, using a Visa or MasterCard credit card. If you
have not yet done so, you will need to create your personal Colloquium space (https://sec.adaltech.com.br/cochrane/2007/novainscricao.asp)
to be able to register and/or make a hotel reservation.
SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
You can find the full scientific programme on the
Colloquium webpage: http://www.colloquiumbrasil.info/program/
Plenary sessions: The
topics this year are: to those whom evidence-based health care concerns,
priorities for evidence, making evidence accessible, and what to do when there
is a lack of evidence. You can expect lively debates including decision- maker,
clinician, methodologist and consumer perspectives. You will also enjoy hearing
different points of view from speakers from high-, middle- and low-income
countries during the plenary sessions.
HTA plenary sessions: This
year’s Colloquium will include five sessions focusing on health technology
assessment (HTA). The first session will provide an introduction to HTA; the
second will address challenges of implementing HTA and its role in health
systems governance; the third session will address judgements about the quality
of evidence and recommendations; the fourth session will cover HTA of
diagnostic technologies; and the final session will discuss considerations of
resource use and opportunity costs in the context of HTA.
Special sessions: In
addition to the plenary and HTA sessions there will be a special session each
day aimed at allowing a more in-depth discussion of a specific topic (such as
patient-reported outcomes) or addressing areas of interest for users of The
Cochrane Library based in low- and middle-income countries (such as pregnancy
and childbirth, infectious diseases, and mental health). These sessions will
be organised as parallel sessions, with an emphasis on discussion and audience
participation.
Workshops: As in
previous years, there will be a full program of 60 workshops in five sessions, targeted
at review authors, editorial base staff, consumers and trainers, among others.
Training workshops will cover a range of methodological issues, including a
series of workshops on systematic reviews of diagnostic tests and a series on
statistics and meta-analysis. Training workshops will be offered by almost all
of the Collaboration's Methods Groups. Discussion workshops will include topics
in advanced methods, process issues, and use and interpretation of systematic
reviews.
Oral and poster presentations: We
received more than 350 abstract submissions for oral and poster presentations.
Using a peer review process, 80 abstracts were selected for oral presentations
and 100 for posters. We will add information about workshops, oral
presentations and posters to the web pages shortly. Otherwise, the scientific programme
is now complete.
We hope you will enjoy the
scientific programme, and we look forward to welcoming you to
Don’t forget to
register before 30 July 2007 to take advantage of the lower registration fee!
Co-Chairs - 15th
Cochrane Colloquium