[Evidence-based medicine. (Role of the Cochrane collaboration)]

The basic condition of practising evidence-based medicine is the knowledge of the evidence. Strongest of all evidences are the conclusions drawn from systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials. The over 2 million papers published annually in the biomedical literature is neither available nor possible to read for any individual, therefore it is necessary to identify and collect all relevant clinical trials, to make them available in databases, and to produce, to publish and to update systematic reviews based on the best evidence. The Cochrane Collaboration was established for these purposes in 1993. The activity of the Collaboration is summarized by a database The Cochrane Library which is updated quarterly. The user friendly Cochrane Library currently contains bibliographic data of over 218 thousand controlled trials (Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, CC-TR), and 1014 systematic reviews (Cochrane Database of Systematic reviews, CDSR) prepared by reviewers in 49 Review Groups. As the Cochrane Library contains information on much more controlled trials than any other databases including MEDLINE, decision makers in health care should be aware of this source of information. In addition to the application of the Cochrane Library as a source of information, active participation by identifying controlled trials in the Hungarian medical literature and registering them in the CCTR is another important task.