Cochrane method for evaluating the efficacy of drugs, national contribution to international Cochrane collaboration

Modern approaches in medicine are based on the principles of evidence-based and balanced decisions in the age of personalized evidence-based medicine. Cochrane collaboration plays an important role in the development of evidence-based medicine; it’s methodology of meta-analysis, summarizing the scientific evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) to answer the clinical questions about safety and effectiveness of various medical interventions. The article provides a brief historical background on the main milestones in the development of the methodology of evidence-based medicine, on the formation of Cochrane collaboration. The authors explain the concept of meta-analysis and systematic review, their types, methodological features and current requirements. The article defines the sequence of writing a metaanalysis: determing a task, inclusion and exclusion criteria, systematic search for randomized clinical trials, methodological assessment of studies, error risk assessment, meta-analysis models: fixed and random effects; determination of heterogeneity, presentation of meta-analysis results, assessment of confidence level using the GRADE system. The domestic experience of establishing evidence-based medicine in Russia and the contribution to the Cochrane international collaboration are represented separately: the opening of the first branch of the North European Cochrane Cooperation Center in Russia in 1998, the development of educational activities, the work of the Russian clone of the Cochrane Hepatobiliary Group and the appearance of the first qualitative meta-analysis, written by Russian authors, the introduction of an adapted system and the development of a national system for supporting medical decisions. The policy of introducing evidence-based medicine at the state level, legal acts, and the prospects for the development of evidence-based medicine in Russia are reflected.