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The South Asian Cochrane Network
2nd South Asian Regional Symposium on Evidence Informed Health Care:
‘Investing in Evidence for Better Health Care’

April 9, 2008
Scudder Auditorium
Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India


Programme

Registration: 7.30 to 9 AM

Welcome and inauguration: 8.45 AM

Plenary Session I: 9 AM to 11 AM

The Cochrane Collaboration and Evidence Informed Health Care

Chairs: Adrian Grant, Co-Chair, Cochrane Collaboration and Sally Green, Director, Australasian Cochrane Centre

  1. The Cochrane Collaboration and Evidence Informed Health Care Lorne Becker Co-Chair, Cochrane Collaboration, Emeritus Professor, Department of Family Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse NY, USA
  2. Evidence Informed Health Care: What is it and who cares? Andy Oxman Editor, Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care Group; Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health Services, Oslo, Norway
  3. Evidence into Policy: The Effective Health Care Research Programme Consortium Paul Garner Coordinating Editor, Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group, International Health Division, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK
  4. Moving Evidence into Policy and Practice Jeremy Grimshaw, Director, Canadian Cochrane Centre; Co-ordinating Editor, Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group; Director, Clinical Epidemiology Programme, Ottawa Health Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
  5. Equity in Evidence for Health Care Peter Tugwell Coordinating Editor, Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group; Director, Centre for Global Health, University of Ottawa, Institute for Population Health, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Refreshments: 11 AM to 11.30 AM

Plenary Session II: 11.30 AM to 1:00 PM

Evaluating and Disseminating the Evidence

Chairs: Amar Jessani, Centre for Studies in Ethics and Rights, Mumbai;

Sandhya Srinivasan, Executive Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Mumbai

  • HIV/AIDS and Nutrition - verdicts in search of evidence Jimmy Volmink, Co-Director, South African Cochrane Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
  • Hidden and not so Hidden Biases in Clinical Trials Lisa Bero Co-Director, San Francisco Branch of the US Cochrane Center; Editor, Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care Group; Professor of Clinical Pharmacy & Health Policy, University of California San Francisco, USA
  • Tainted evidence:  Drug Companies and the power of marketing Peter Gøtzsche Director, The Nordic Cochrane Centre; Editor, Cochrane Methodology Review Group; Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • The effective use of the media in disseminating Evidence about Health Care: Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert Publisher, The Cochrane Library, John Wiley & Sons, UK

Lunch: 1 PM to 2 PM

Concurrent Workshops: 2 PM to 4 PM

For Methodologists and Review Authors:

Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy

Venue: Biostatistics Resource & Training Centre

Chairs: L. Jeyaseelan, Professor of Biostatistics, Christian Medical College, Vellore; Sreekumaran Nair, Professor of Biostatistics, Manipal University, Manipal

Resource Persons:

Jonathan Deeks Convener, Cochrane Statistical Methods Group; Professor of Health Statistics, Dept. of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK.
Rob Scholten Director, Dutch Cochrane Centre, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands

For Editors of Indian Medical Journals; Ethicists; Researchers:

Clinical Trials Registration & Results Reporting The CONSORT Guidelines and Beyond

Venue: Community Health Training Centre Auditorium

Chairs: Peush Sahni, Editor, National Medical Journal of India, New Delhi; K Satyanarayana, Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Research, New Delhi; George Thomas, Editor-Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Chennai

Resource Persons:

Davina Ghersi WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, Geneva
Kay Dickersin Director, US Cochrane Center, Center for Clinical Trials, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
Peter Gøtzsche Director, The Nordic Cochrane Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark

For Health Policy Makers: (Closed Session; for invitees only)

Evidence Informed Health Policy

Venue: Centre for Stem Cell Research Auditorium

Chair: Professor V I Mathan, ICMR Chair of Epidemiology, National Institute of Epidemiology, Indian Council of Medical Research, Chennai

Facilitators

Andy Oxman, Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health Services, Oslo, Norway; Paul Garner, International Health Division, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK

For clinicians and researchers:

Improving Maternal and Child Health Outcomes- Bridging the Evidence- Practice Gap

Venue:Senate Hall; Carman Block

Chairs: Abraham Peedicayil, Professor and Head, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Korula George, Professor and Head, Reproductive Medicine Unit, Christian Medical Colege, Vellore

Resource persons

Steve McDonald Deputy Director, Australasian Cochrane Centre, Monash Institute of Health Services Research, Monash University, Australia
Sally Green Director, Australasian Cochrane Centre, Convener Cochrane Handbook Advisory Group; Monash University, Australia
Pisake Lumbiganon Director, Thai Cochrane Network, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand

For consumers of Health Care and the media:

Evidence for consumers of health care and the media

Venue: SACN/CMC CREST conference room; Centre for Stem Cell Research

Chairs: Shoba Iyer, Coordinator, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, Chennai

Resource persons

Janet Wale Cochrane Collaboration Consumer Network; Brunswick, Victoria, Australia
Liz Whamond Cochrane Collaboration Consumer Network; Canadian Breast Cancer Network, New Brunswick, Canada
Gerd Antes Director, German Cochrane Centre, Dept. Med. Biometry & Statistics, University Medical Centre, Freiburg, Germany

For Information Specialists, Librarians, users of Evidence resources:

The Cochrane Library and EBM resources

Venue: Seminar room; Centre for Stem Cell Research

Resource persons

Deborah Pentesco- Gilbert Publisher, The Cochrane Library, Associate Editorial Director, Wiley – Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. UK
Ruth Foxlee Trials Search Coordinator, Cochrane Wounds Group, Health Sciences, University of York, UK

For undergraduate and post-graduate students and beginners:

Introduction to Evidence Based Health Practice

Venue: Scudder Auditorium

Chairs: Meenu Singh, Professor of Paediatrics and Coordinator, SACN site at PGIMER, Chandigarh; Omar Rahman, Pro-Vice Chancellor and coordinator, SACN site at the Independent University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Resource persons

Donna Gilles Western Sydney Area Mental Health Service, Cumberland Hospital, NSW, Australia
Narelle Willis Managing Editor, Cochrane Renal Group, Centre for Kidney Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, NSW, Australia
Hans van der Wouden Department of General Practice, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Netherlands

Poster Session:  over lunch and refreshment breaks

Abstracts are invited on the themes of:

  • Bias in Research Evidence;
  • Barriers to Evidence Informed Health Policy and Health Care;
  • Bioinformatics and Evidence Informed Health Care;
  • Clinical Trials Methods;
  • Dissemination of Evidence;
  • Evidence Informed Health Care;
  • Evidence Informed Health Policy;
  • Evidence Informed Health Systems;
  • Evidence Informed Practice Guidelines;
  • Evidence Informed Ethics;
  • Grading Evidence;
  • Involving consumers in research and practice;
  • Locating and accessing the Evidence;
  • Medical Journals and Evidence Informed Health Policy and Care;
  • Media and Evidence Informed Health Policy and Health Care;
  • Meta-analysis;
  • Methodological issues in systematic reviews and meta-analysis;
  • Methodological issues in RCTs and observational studies;
  • Methodological issues in assessment of diagnostic test accuracy;
  • Moving Evidence to Practice;
  • Prospective Registration of Clinical Trials;
  • Reporting Results of Clinical Trials;
  • Reporting Adverse Events;
  • Research Misconduct;
  • Software for systematic reviews and meta-analysis;
  • Systematic reviews of the effects of interventions;
  • Systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy

Key Note Address: 4.45 PM

Chair: Andy Oxman, Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health Services, Oslo, Norway

On Climate Change for Health-How Prominent is the Evidence Footprint?
Tikki Pang Director- Research Policy and Cooperation, WHO, Geneva (via tele-link)

Closing session: 5.30 PM

The Cochrane Collaboration and Global Health Care; Challenges and opportunities:
Nick Royle CEO, The Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, UK

The South Asian Cochrane Network: Past, Present, Future
Sally Green, Steve McDonald and the site representatives of the SACN

 

Entertainment 6-8 PM

Avigna Dance Ensemble
 

Dinner 8 PM to10 PM

Scudder hall and lawns