The BEST unit are key contributors to two international networks, Cochrane and Best Evidence Medical Education Collaboration.
Cochrane an international network of people helping healthcare providers, policymakers, patients, their advocates and carers, make well-informed decisions about health care by preparing and publishing systematic reviews in The Cochrane Library.
Mission
Within BEST, we house an editorial review group satellite centre for Cochrane Gut, working with colleagues in Mcmaster university.
The mission of the Cochrane Group is to perform systematic reviews of health care interventions directed at ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease with a secondary interest in other intestinal disorders including Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea, antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, microscopic colitis, collagenous colitis, lymphocytic colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic constipation and diarrhoea.
Focus
In our UCLan BEST unit, we focus on a portfolio containing:
- All IBD reviews in adults and children (except those pertaining to interventions based on manipulating the microbiome, as we author those reviews)
- All reviews in paediatric functional bowel disease
- All reviews completed by our colleagues within the McMaster Cochrane Gut base
Informed education
BEME, the Best Evidence Medical Education Collaboration (Harden et al., 1999), is an international group of individuals, universities and professional organisations committed to the development of evidence informed education in the medical and health professions through:
- The dissemination of information which allows teachers and stakeholders in the medical and health professions to make decisions on the basis of the best evidence available
- The production of reviews which present the best available evidence and meet the needs of the user
- The creation of a culture of best evidence education amongst individuals, institutions and national bodies