By Shauna Hurley, Communications Manager, Cochrane Australia
I began this year with a humble confession that I knew nothing about Cochrane. Thankfully I’m concluding it in a much more enlightened state, and I'm hoping you'll find all-important evidence of this in my top 5 Cochrane revelations for 2015. So here goes:
1. Things are not always what they seem:
Cochrane by day, Cochrane by night
It's said that first impressions are usually right. Back in January, mine were that my new Cochrane colleagues were quiet, industrious and inordinately intelligent types who shared a serious determination to gather, analyse and disseminate high quality health evidence. This proved to be the case, with the caveat that ‘quiet’ doesn’t apply all year-round. I discovered at the Vienna Colloquium that many of these unassuming individuals were masters of both meta-analysis and the Macarena. Be it cheesey '90s pop choreography or a classical Viennese waltz, Cochranites from all corners of the globe owned the dancefloor and showed how easy it is to move from serious scholarly debate by day to lively dancing and hijinks by night. Who would've thought?
2. It’s possible to attend an interesting AGM
I’ve traditionally found annual general meetings to be snooze-inducing affairs. Someone moves a motion here. Someone passes a motion there. Not particularly stimulating business. Not so the Cochrane AGM, where the hundreds of gathered participants traversed emotional territory ranging from heated debate about the official spokesperson policy, to shared pride in the awards and achievements of others, to deep sadness for much loved colleagues and friends who passed away this year. The respective tributes left few dry eyes and illuminated for me what an extraordinary and genuine sense of connectedness, collegiality and friendship there is across the global Cochrane community.
3. Awards ceremonies: yes. Celebrity culture: no.
I discovered that Cochrane bestows plenty of prizes and awards on the great and the good, including a most original accolade for the person who’s been the most critical of the organisation that year (in a constructive way of course). You have to love that. The awards ceremony was conducted in a style with which I can find no parallel. There were no overbearing hosts, Kardashian-esque frocks or displays of bitter competition between the assorted nominees. Appreciation and humility were the order of the day, and it’s safe to say that even the biggest names of Cochrane have not yet fallen prey to the trappings and antics of celebrity culture.
4. More media please
My earliest suspicions that Australians would like to know more about Cochrane evidence were consistently confirmed this year, as media outlets, from The Conversation to the Herald Sun and Channel 9 to the ABC, lined up to cover review findings on hormone replacement therapy (HRT),Tamiflu, alternative medicine, portion control, ADHD and e-cigarettes - to name just a few. The resident journalists at our recent Australasian Cochrane Symposium and members of the media who attended our evidence workshop for journalists confirmed first-hand that they and their readers are keen to see more Cochrane evidence. Stay tuned then for even greater coverage in the new year.
5. Beware: evidence by osmosis
Last week my family’s nightly dinner conversation turned to the profound question of whether there are more textas or pens used around the world. My two small children believed textas were in the ascendant, while my husband declared pens were most populous. I duly asked them the critical question: what’s the evidence for this? To which the reply came that I had obviously been working at Cochrane too long. Who knows, I may be making jokes about risk of bias next – though I suspect it’ll take me a few more years to get systematic review-related humour. Either way, the thought processes of a classically trained humanities graduate who always opted for sociology over statistics may have been forever changed by just 12 months exposure to Cochrane.
So that's enough of my revelations. My thanks to everyone who has made me feel so welcome this year, especially my lovely colleagues at the ACC. I look forward to discovering plenty more about Cochrane next year and hope to be inundated with all your ideas for future media stories, tweets, interviews and articles. In the meantime, have a great summer break!