KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
What is important in the future challenges need to tackled, both in relation to the relevance
There is growing appreciation of the importance of non- and applicability of reviews and in the dissemination of
communicable diseases in LMIC. In 2008, 7.6 million people information to those who need it, when they need it. The
died of cancer – 13% of all deaths worldwide. The World Collaboration can succeed in this by ensuring that it is able to
Health Organization reports that about 70% of all cancer attract conscientious and able researchers, and engage with
deaths in 2008 occurred in LMIC. Furthermore, deaths from decision-makers. l
cancer worldwide are projected to continue rising, reaching
13.1 million deaths a year by 2030. (http://www.who.int/ David Tovey has been the Editor in Chief of The Cochrane
mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/index.html) Library since January 2009. He worked previously as Editorial
As an organization that is committed to providing the best Director for the BMJ Evidence Centre, which is the division of
evidence to guide decision-making, The Cochrane the BMJ Group that produces Clinical Evidence and its
Collaboration needs to ensure that it is conducting and counterpart for the public BestTreatments, BMJ Point of
publishing reviews that address the key questions, be they in Care, and Best Practice.
cancer or other conditions, and that it both prioritizes reviews At the BMJ, David was initially Deputy Editor of Clinical
that are especially relevant to low- and middle-income Evidence under Fiona Godlee, moving to the Editor role when
countries and also addresses the applicability of other reviews she became Editor of the British Medical Journal.
to such settings. In order to achieve this, it is crucial that the Dr Tovey worked as a General Practitioner in an urban
Collaboration identifies, engages with and supports practice in South London for 15 years until 2003. During that
researchers in LMIC and other resource-poor settings as time he also undertook roles in continuing professional
review authors, peer reviewers and editors. development for primary care professionals, and was a clinical
It is equally important that that all knowledge producers act governance lead for a Primary Care Group.
to ensure accessibility of high quality information and provide
people with the skills and knowledge to act on the evidence Harriet MacLehose is a Senior Editor in the Cochrane Editorial
that is provided11. Knowledge translation efforts such as the Unit, which supports Cochrane Review Groups and other
Support Summaries programme seek to help policy-makers in entities to ensure that The Cochrane Library continues to meet
resource-poor settings to understand the findings from the varied needs of users, and appropriately reflects the
Cochrane Reviews. commitment of Cochrane Review Group teams and authors.
In a book recently published by the Cochrane Consumers Harriet was previously Assistant Editor, and later Deputy Co-
and Communication Group, The Knowledgeable Patient, Sophie ordinating Editor, for the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group at
Hill, Helen Dilkes and Jessica Kaufman identified several the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for eight years and a
building blocks for building research capacity and knowledge journals editor for Wiley-Blackwell.
transfer. Firstly, information must be accessible and tailored to
the desired audience, both in format and in language; secondly, Professor Mike Clarke has worked for many years on rigorous
the knowledge transfer initiative should proceed according to assessments of the effects of interventions and actions, within
a pre-specified plan; and finally, the information should come health care and in other areas. He is the former Director of the
from a trusted source12. UK Cochrane Centre and was Deputy Chair and Chair of The
John Lavis has also described the advantages of moving Cochrane Collaboration’s Steering Group from 2000 to 2004.
from “user-pull” modes of knowledge transfer to a "producer- He has worked on dozens of systematic reviews in a wide variety
push" model, providing of course that the user has autonomy of topics, including the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’
to control the nature and volume of material that is pushed Collaborative Group’s reviews of individual participant data
13
towards them . from randomized trials of treatments for women with breast
The Cochrane Collaboration is well placed to provide the cancer, which influence health care practice and research
evidence needed to inform cancer care in LMIC settings, at the worldwide. Mike is now based at Queen’s University Belfast,
level of patients and practitioners making choices about where he is Director of the All Ireland Hub for Trials
interventions and at the level of policy-makers making Methodology Research, and Chair of the Medical Research
decisions about the provision of services. However, many Council’s Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research.
158 CANCER CONTROL 2013