Cochrane Library Podcasts

Many pregnant women will experience some degree of morning sickness, but, for some, the nausea and vomiting will be much worse. Rupsa Boelig from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, USA tells us about the findings of a May 2016 Cochrane Review of interventions to help them.

Mike Clarke, podcast editor for Trials Change Lives, based at the Northern Ireland Hub for Trials Methodology Research in Queen’s University Belfast discusses the general need to keep biases out of trials by looking at the specific challenge of minimizing bias when the results are being analyzed.

Read more on this topic in the James Lind Library.

This podcast is part of the Trials Change Lives initiative, developed by the MRC Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research in partnership with the Northern Ireland Network for Trials Methodology Research. Free posters are available to download methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk/research/trials-change-lives.

Peter Sandercock from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland tells us how two randomised trials, with 40,000 patients in more than 800 hospitals, changed clinical practice for tens of millions of people with a stroke.

This podcast is part of the Trials Change Lives initiative, developed by the MRC Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research in partnership with the Northern Ireland Network for Trials Methodology Research. Free posters are available to download methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk/research/trials-change-lives.

Being physically active can have beneficial effects on our physical and mental health, but the UK population as a whole doesn’t meet the current Government guidelines. Dr Ruth Hunter, Lecturer in Physical Activity and Public Health/NIHR Career Development Fellow, UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health, at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland describes some of the innovative approaches that her team are testing to encourage people to be more active.

This podcast is part of the Trials Change Lives initiative, developed by the MRC Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research in partnership with the Northern Ireland Network for Trials Methodology Research. Free posters are available to download methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk/research/trials-change-lives.

Most people would probably benefit from increasing their physical activity. One way to achieve this might be reducing the amount of time we spend sitting down at work. In January 2015, a new Cochrane Review examined the evidence on interventions that might help and this was updated with several new studies in March 2016. We asked one of the authors, Jos Verbeek from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health to tell us about the need for the review and its latest findings.

A key part of the infrastructure for clinical trials in the UK is provided by more than 50 Clinical Trial Units spread across the country. We asked Julia Brown, Director of the Clinical Trial Units’ Network to tell us about their work and their contribution to ensuring that trials change lives.

This podcast is part of the Trials Change Lives initiative, developed by the MRC Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research in partnership with the Northern Ireland Network for Trials Methodology Research. Free posters are available to download methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk/research/trials-change-lives.

General practitioners are key to both the conduct of clinical trials and the uptake of their results. Carol Sinnott a GP from Cork in Ireland tells us how they have helped her to change lives.

This podcast is part of the Trials Change Lives initiative, developed by the MRC Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research in partnership with the Northern Ireland Network for Trials Methodology Research. Free posters are available to download methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk/research/trials-change-lives.

Improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer mean that more people are living with and surviving cancer, which brings with it a need to identify interventions that can help with any long-term complications. In this Evidence Pod, Bridget Candy from Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department at UCL in London, England describes the findings of a new Cochrane Review from February 2016 which examined the randomised trials of interventions for sexual dysfunction in women.

In the UK, the main public funder of healthcare research is the National Institute for Health Research, or NIHR. In this Evidence Pod for Trials Change Lives, we asked Hywel Williams, Director of the NIHR’s Health Technology Assessment programme to outline the importance of clinical trials to this programme and health and social care more generally.

This podcast is part of the Trials Change Lives initiative, developed by the MRC Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research in partnership with the Northern Ireland Network for Trials Methodology Research. Free posters are available to download methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk/research/trials-change-lives.

Among the updated Cochrane Reviews in March 2016 is one from a team of researchers in Brazil looking at the effects of vaccines for Herpes Zoster. Anna Gagliardi (centre), with her co-authors Brenda Gomes Silva (left) and Maria Regina Torloni, from the Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil describes their findings in this evidence pod.