Making what can ’t be counted count: Cochrane-WHO collaboration on qualitative evidence syntheses in guidelines showcased in new articles

A series of papers highlighting innovative work carried out by the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group and the World Health Organization on using reviews of qualitative research in guideline development processes has been published inHealth Research Policy and Systems.Cochrane is a non-governmental organization in official relations with WHO. The Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group, as well as other Cochrane contributors, has a long-standing relationship with WHO and works closely with them on guideline development. This fruitful collaboration had led to several innovations, such as the inclusion of qualitative evidence syntheses in WHO guideline processes and the development of GRADE-CERQual, an approach to assess the confidence of evidence from reviews of qualitative research.EPOC produced Cochrane ’s first qualitative evidence synthesis review,Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of lay health worker programmes to improve access to maternal and child health, in 2013. This review was used in aWHO guideline on health worker task shifting, providing the panel with important information about the acceptability and feasibility of lay health worker programmes and complementing another review that focused on the effectiveness of these programmes.Since then, WHO and Cochrane EPOC have continued to collaborate. Several WHO guidelines now include evidence from Cochrane qualitative evidence syntheses, and Cochrane EPOC...
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