The Epistemonikos Foundation introduced its new Database of Randomized Trials and presented the initial results at the 2023 Cochrane Colloquium in London, UK.

Since 1993, Cochrane has held annual conferences that bring people together in one place to discuss, develop, and promote the use of evidence in healthcare decision making. The Cochrane Colloquiums are attended by those engaged in evidence production, co-production, dissemination, implementation, and policy making. This year’s Colloquium was hosted by Cochrane UK at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre from 4th to 6th September, where the theme was ‘Forward together for trusted evidence’, chosen to explore the challenges for the future around trustworthiness of healthcare data and information. 

The Epistemonikos Foundation attended the 2023 Cochrane Colloquium to introduce one of its most recent developments: the Epistemonikos Database of Randomized Trials. This ongoing project was exhibited as a poster by our Chief Research Methods Officer, Camila Ávila MSc.

We were pleased to participate because this year marks Cochrane's 30th anniversary and the Colloquium was long and eagerly awaited by the evidence community given that the events of 2020, 2021, and 2022 were cancelled due to COVID-19. Furthermore, the Colloquium gathered over 1.000 attendees from all around the world, turning it into a unique opportunity to explore potential collaboration possibilities, receive feedback from the evidence community and get to know the challenges they are facing, and learn from one another. 

The 2023 Cochrane Colloquium was the perfect setting to share the methods and preliminary results of the development of the Epistemonikos Database of Randomized Trials (https://dbtrials.epistemonikos.org/) with fellow review methodologists, researchers, and general knowledge users. 

 

A comprehensive, freely accessible database of trials

The Epistemonikos Database of Systematic Reviews (www.epistemonikos.org) is the largest repository of health-related systematic reviews. To build and maintain this database we combine systematic review methods, large-scale human collaboration, and multiple cutting-edge technologies.

Considering that randomized trials are crucial in health decision-making, we have embarked on the development of a comprehensive, freely accessible trials database, following a similar approach to that of the Epistemonikos Database of Systematic Reviews (EDSR). The new project, known as the Epistemonikos Database of Randomized Trials (EDRT), is currently in its development phase, with an anticipated release date set for 2024.