The Federal Government has renewed funding for the ongoing access to The Cochrane Library, an online resource that features over 5,000 published systematic reviews of evidence for health care interventions.

 

The Federal Government will renew the funding through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), meaning that all Australians will be able to access the information about health care methods that work and those that do not.

 

Australians are currently the highest per capita users of the Library in the world. In 2011, Australians viewed 708,000 Cochrane abstracts, while 501,642 full reviews were downloaded.

 

The three most popular reviews in Australia were regarding models for care for childbearing women, preventing falls in older people living in the community and the use of zinc for the common cold.

 

NHMRC CEO Professor Warwick Anderson said that NHMRC is committed to a health literate society where all Australians benefit from access to the latest health and medical research.

 

“Access to high quality research evidence is being increased through support of The Cochrane Library and NHMRC’s open access policy on the research it funds. Ongoing promotion of research findings will ensure translation into clinical practice.”