The importance of equity in health, wellbeing and wealth is increasingly accepted globally, and has been identified as a priority for Cochrane.
About us
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to address global challenges including health inequalities and is therefore considered within all 17 SDGs. The Cochrane Health Equity Thematic Group will strengthen Cochrane’s commitment in this area, helping us to improve the evidence base about interventions that may reduce health inequities.
Our Thematic Group addresses an issue that cuts across multiple research areas, and therefore may encourage other Cochrane Groups and author teams to consider health equity in their work. This has the potential to inform practice and policy, by reducing uncertainty around the effectiveness of interventions across different populations. In turn, this can have a discernible impact on reducing unfair and avoidable differences in health and health care globally.
The Cochrane Health Equity Thematic Group has its roots in the Equity Methods Group, a global team of researchers and other stakeholders who are interested and experienced in multi-stakeholder engagement in evidence synthesis. In forming the Thematic Group, we aim to improve efficiency in producing evidence, by providing support to review authors, review groups, and the editorial team.
The Equity Group has a large international network that includes members of the Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group, which consists of around 800 individuals, and the Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Consortium, with a further 120 individuals. Our leaders are connected with various organizations globally that can help us leverage funding from diverse funders - established and new. We see the transition from Methods Group to Thematic Group as a natural one, given our experience in conducting methodological research, producing methodological guidance, and provide training, support, and peer review for Cochrane, Campbell, and other systematic review authors.
Our team
- Tamara Lofti, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
- Lawrence Mbuagbaw, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
- Jennifer Petkovic, University of Ottawa, Canada
- Kevin Pottie, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
- Gabriel Rada, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Epistemonikos Foundation, Santiago, Chile
- Peter Tugwell, University of Ottawa, Canada
- Vivian Welch, The Campbell Collaboration, Canada
View the operations committee on the Cochrane Methods Equity webpage.
Our plans
Our aim is to raise the profile of health equity within Cochrane review to help improve the evidence base about interventions that may reduce health inequities.
Some of our immediate objectives are to:
- Promote equity in the health evidence base.
- Ensure equitable processes for stakeholder engagement.
- Produce high-priority, equity-focused evidence syntheses.
- Build capacity for equity design, analysis, and reporting.
- Promote equity in implementation tools.
Learn more about our objectives on the Cochrane Methods Equity website.
News
- The equity group: Supporting Cochrane's social responsibility of improving health equity: Position statement in Cochrane Evidence Methods and Synthesis journal
- Visit the Ottawa Centre for Health Equity news page
Contact us
To find out more about our work, please email us.
