Introduction

Contents

Welcome to the ARI newsletter. We hope you enjoy our new feature called 'Getting to know...' where we gain an insight into a different ARI editor every issue. Thanks to Allen Cheng for being brave and going first. We look forward to getting to know a little more about all our editors in the issues to come!

Introduction

New ARI review titles registered this year

Top 3 ARI reviews in 2013

Getting to know....ARI Editor, Allen Cheng

Changes to the Cochrane Commercial Sponsorship Policy

Cochrane Strategy 2020

Upcoming Colloquium

ARI Twitter

New ARI review titles registered this year

A199 - Aerosolised antibiotics versus systemic antibiotics for hospitalised-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP)

A200 - Vitamin D supplementation for the treatment of acute childhood pneumonia

A201 - Paracetamol (acetaminophen) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, alone or combined, for pain relief in acute otitis media in children

A202 - Supplements and herbal drugs for the prevention of the common cold – a multiple treatment systematic review

A203 - Prophylactic antibiotics for preventing lower respiratory tract infections in high risk children less than 12 years old

A204 - Rapid diagnostic tests for bacterial meningitis

Top 3 ARI reviews in 2013

Getting to know...... ARI Group Editor, Allen Cheng

How did you first get involved with the Cochrane Collaboration?
I worked in Darwin with Peter Morris who suggested that the review I was writing would be more robust as a Cochrane review. It was great advice, as I learned a lot about how I should go about designing my own clinical trial.


What is the title of the first ARI review you have authored?
Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor (G-CSF) as an adjunct to antibiotics in the treatment of pneumonia in adults


How long have you been an ARI Editor?
Since 2005.


Have you ever been to a Colloquium? Which one(s)?
Unfortunately not.


What is your job outside of the Cochrane Collaboration?
I have a number of jobs – as an infectious diseases physician, Head of the Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology Unit at Alfred Health, and an epidemiologist in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.


What do you like best about your work?
The diversity – in my typical day I jump between discussing the best way to treat a complex infection, to helping design a campaign to prevent bloodstream infections, to using statistical models to make sense of data, to advising on public health policy. Although it does mean I’m spread rather thinly, it’s great to interact with people in a variety of different fields.


What was your very first job?
As a student, I worked as a legal secretary, which gave me an appreciation of the use (and abuse) of language. My first full time job was as an intern at St Vincent’s in Melbourne – my first patient asked me (after I had tried unsuccessfully to put in an intravenous line) how long I had been a doctor, to which I could only answer honestly “about an hour”.


What research project are you currently working on, and what does it involve?
I have several research projects running at the moment. I’m involved in a national surveillance program for severe influenza (FluCAN) that also estimates influenza vaccine effectiveness. We’re currently running a randomized controlled trial where antibiotic therapies are reviewed by a multidisciplinary team of physicians and pharmacists to see if we can improve the use of antibiotics. We’re also looking to find where Clostridium difficile, a common cause of hospital-acquired diarrhoea, comes from in the hospital.


What is your favourite place in the world and why?
There are many, but I have many reasons for choosing Helsinki; its architecture and parks, the self-effacing, introspective nature of the Finns, and the quirkiness of the language. There are some great words in Finnish – the longest palindrome (saippuakivikauppias; soap stone seller) and wonderfully reflexive mututuntuma, which translates to something like “a feeling I have about a feeling I have”. There’s also pilkunnussija (which readers can look up themselves) that I’m sure everyone can identify with.


What is the best piece of advice you have received?
Kit Fairley, who supervised the first research project I undertook as a junior doctor, once gave me excellent career advice. He asked me to think of the last time that I was so immersed in my work I didn’t notice the time – and that’s probably what I should be doing more of.


Tell us something about yourself that your colleagues wouldn’t know.
I have a fascination for languages (unfortunately not matched by an aptitude to learn them), particularly uncommonly encountered ones in countries where I’ve previously worked, including tok pisin (Pidgin English), Finnish, Danish, Thai, and Spanish.

Changes to the Cochrane Commercial Sponsorship Policy - editors now included

1. What is the basic message of Cochrane’s commercial sponsorship policy?

There are four key points to the policy:

• no authors can be current employees of pharmaceutical companies or similar organisations (such as manufacturers of healthcare products);

• the majority of authors and lead author on a Cochrane Review should not have any conflicts of interest relevant to the review topic;

• authors of Cochrane Reviews cannot be funded by  pharmaceutical companies or industry to undertake the review;

• no part of the Cochrane Review process can be funded by pharmaceutical companies or similar organisations.

2. What is the rationale for the policy?

Cochrane has always sought to provide independent healthcare information. Research has shown that reviews that are funded (or partially funded) by industry are likely to overestimate benefits and underestimate harms.  Sponsorship of drug and device studies by manufacturers is associated with favourable results and conclusions for the sponsor’s product, compared with sponsorship by other sources. The analyses suggest the existence of an industry bias that cannot be explained by standard 'Risk of bias' assessments.

3. What prompted the recent revisions?

Our policy was originally established in 2004. Questions about implementing the policy are referred to the Funding Arbiter Panel. As the panel gained experience with implementing the policy, we discovered the need for some clarifications. We also determined that the original policy did not cover editors of Cochrane Reviews.

4. What is the most important thing that people need to know about recent the recent revisions?

The main revisions are that we have included editors in the policy, and provided clarity about who can author Cochrane Reviews. No authors who are currently employed by a pharmaceutical company or similar organisation can be an author of a Cochrane Review in which their employer would have a commercial interest. In addition, we have codified the implementation of the policy around the proportion of authors that can have a conflict of interest related to the review.  The majority (greater than 50%) of the authors must have no conflicts of interest, and the lead author cannot have any conflicts.

5. Will these changes make significant differences to how Cochrane’s commercial sponsorship policy works?

Probably not, although we hope that the current emphasis on applying the policy will make it clearer to Cochrane Groups that it is their responsibility to check for conflicts of interest at each stage in the review process. The earlier the conflicts are known, the greater the opportunity to prevent them from influencing the methods, results or interpretation of the completed review. Review Groups must understand the policy and ensure that they have complete and accurate disclosures of funding and conflicts of interest from all authors at all stages of the review process. Any uncertainty about whether a review is in compliance with the policy, including the suitability of an author, should prompt a referral to the Funding Arbiter Panel.

6. How can Cochrane contributors ensure that their activities are in compliance with the policy?

Read the policy! If you are unsure of whether your conflicts of interest are in compliance, ask your Cochrane Review Group Managing Editor first. If you have questions about how a specific review or author should be managed under the policy, please refer your question to the Funding Arbiter Panel via email at fundingarbiter@cochrane.org.

Cochrane Strategy 2020

The new strategy sets out our new strategic plan, which defines the organisation’s direction for the next six years and provides the framework for strategic decision making.

Feedback on the Strategy to 2020 can be sent to strategy@cochrane.org or directly to Lucie Binder, Senior Advisor to the CEO: lbinder@cochrane.org.

Colloquium

22nd Cochrane Colloquium - Hyderabad, India 21-26 September

ARI Editorial Meeting: Wednesday, 24 September 07:30 – 08:45

Sign-up for meetings and workshops commences Monday, 18th August

ARI Twitter

To keep up to date with what's happening in the ARI Group - follow us @CochraneARI