Cochrane Library Podcasts

COVID-19 has spread quickly throughout the world, and Cochrane is producing a series of rapid reviews to help decision makers deal with the pandemic and its impact. One of these reviews, published in June 2020, examines the accuracy of using signs and symptoms to diagnose whether someone has the disease. We asked the lead author, Thomas Struyf from the KU Leuven in Belgium, to tell us why the review is needed and what they found.

Cochrane Incontinence has produced more than 40 systematic reviews of interventions that might help people suffering from incontinence. In this podcast, one of the group’s researchers, Fiona Stewart, talks with author Wael Agur, a subspecialist and lead urogynaecologist for NHS Ayrshire & Arran, UK, about the December 2019 update for one of these, looking at the effects of a type of surgery called laparoscopic colposuspension.

Cochrane Incontinence has produced more than 40 systematic reviews of interventions that might help people suffering from incontinence. In this podcast, one of the group’s researchers, Fiona Stewart, talks with author Wael Agur, a subspecialist and lead urogynaecologist for NHS Ayrshire & Arran, UK, about the December 2019 update for one of these, looking at the effects of a type of surgery called laparoscopic colposuspension.

Cochrane Incontinence has produced more than 40 systematic reviews of interventions that might help people suffering from incontinence. In this podcast, one of the group’s researchers, Fiona Stewart, talks with author Wael Agur, a subspecialist and lead urogynaecologist for NHS Ayrshire & Arran, UK, about the December 2019 update for one of these, looking at the effects of a type of surgery called laparoscopic colposuspension.

Cochrane Incontinence has produced more than 40 systematic reviews of interventions that might help people suffering from incontinence. In this podcast, one of the group’s researchers, Fiona Stewart, talks with author Wael Agur, a subspecialist and lead urogynaecologist for NHS Ayrshire & Arran, UK, about the December 2019 update for one of these, looking at the effects of a type of surgery called laparoscopic colposuspension.

Cochrane Incontinence has produced more than 40 systematic reviews of interventions that might help people suffering from incontinence. In this podcast, one of the group’s researchers, Fiona Stewart, talks with author Wael Agur, a subspecialist and lead urogynaecologist for NHS Ayrshire & Arran, UK, about the December 2019 update for one of these, looking at the effects of a type of surgery called laparoscopic colposuspension.

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has included restrictions on some people’s movement, to try to protect them from the virus. This isolation may have adverse effects on mental health and, in May 2020, we published a rapid review of the effects of using video calls to ease this among older people. We asked the lead reviewer, Chris Noone from the National University of Ireland in Galway to describe the evidence that they found.

Sepsis is the most common cause of death for newborn babies worldwide. Mohan Pammi and Gautham Suresh from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA updated the Cochrane review of the evidence on the use of lactoferrin, in March 2020, and we asked Mohan to describe the latest findings.

Poor health is a common problem for many newborn babies in low-resource settings. One way to help with this might be through the delivery of educational care packages to mothers and communities, and a new Cochrane review from November 2019 looked at the evidence for these. We asked lead author Zohra Lassi from the Robinson Research Institute at the University of Adelaide in Australia to take us through the findings of the review.

Cochrane is producing a series of reviews to help decision makers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, we published our rapid review of the effects of convalescent plasma and hyperimmune immunoglobulin and we asked its lead author, Sarah Valk from the Center for Clinical Transfusion Research at Sanquin Blood Supply in the Netherlands, to tell us what they found.