Quality Control / Validation of Information Sources (2)
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Dear Candy,
you are absolutely right - it is time to shift from quantity to qual-
ity. What you are asking for sounds like what already exists in the
form of the Cochrane library. Please feel free to phone Jimmy Volmink
or me to find out more about it. We are both at the MRC in Cape Town,
which is the home base of the South African Cochrane Centre.
Briefly, it is a database of systematic reviews, in full text. A sys-
tematic review is, pretty much what it says - a comprehensive collec-
tion, scrutiny, analysis and summary of all of the good trial litera-
ture on the effectiveness of an intervention in health care - this
could range from an intervention like a particular drug, or, as with
the review Jimmy did, on all interventions to improve adherence to Tb
therapy. There are about 300 such reviews already on the library,
which is available as a CD-ROM, and on the internet, to subscribers
only. We have put a copy in every medical library in SA, sponsored by
the Medical Aid industry, believe it or not!
Merrick Zwarenstein
Division Head,
Health Systems Division,
Centre for Epidemiological Research in Southern Africa
Medical Research Council (MRC)
PO BOX 19070, Tygerberg, South Africa, 7505
Tel: +27-21-938-0247
Fax: +27-21-938-0342
mailto:MZWAREN@eagle.mrc.ac.za
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