Editorial:  There were no plans to write a part 5 to a 4-part series but this account by David Hammerstein, a Cochrane board member, clamors to be spread.  One more point to mention is if what Cochrane is doing now is junk, then the NICE and all other guidelines are also junk.  So there is […]

Editorial Note: This is the fourth in a sequence of posts on the possible disintegration of the Cochrane enterprise.  The most recent being the Valley of Death.  Archie Cochrane was one of a group of British doctors who came back from World War II committed to social medicine, some of whom like Richard Doll, who […]

Editorial: Part 3 of this Cochrane sequence follows on from last week’s Data Based Medicine. While the histories of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) celebrate a first use of randomization in 1947, and there was some use of RCTs, primarily in mental health, in the mid-1950s, RCTs were a minority interest until 1962 and might have […]

Editorial Note: This post continues a sequence that began with Cochrane Cock-up.  It centers on treatment efficacy. A third post will center on safety where Cochrane has failed even more comprehensively than on efficacy. A fourth will feature some of the protagonists. The Cochrane Collaboration took shape around two foundational ideas.  One was that randomized […]