Philippines

The Philippines is a growing hub of Cochrane activity in South East Asia with over 70 review authors representing some 16 review groups.

In June 2006, to coincide with a meeting of the SEA-ORCHID Project, we hosted a meeting of 25 Philippine contributors to the Cochrane Collaboration to promote networking among review authors. We also ran a one-day Cochrane review workshop at the Philippine General Hospital and two Cochrane Library workshops. Access to the Cochrane Library is available at the Philippine General Hospital and the University of the Philippines Manila library system (courtesy of Wiley's support for the SEA-ORCHID Project). A second meeting of Philippine contributors took place in August 2007.

Also in Manila, the Clinical Epidemiology Unit in the Department of Medicine is part of the Effective Health Care Research Programme Consortium which is coordinated by the Liverpool School of Tropical Mediciine. This Programme links researchers and clinicians in South Africa, China, India and Nigeria in preparing and disseminating systematic reviews, and helps provide some support to Cochrane activities, especially in infectious diseases.

Following her stint in Oxford during 2006 as the recipient of the Aubrey Sheiham Public Health and Primary Care Scholarship, Belen Dofitas from St Luke’s Medical Center in Manila, organised a two-day How to conduct a Cochrane systematic review workshop in September 2007 hosted by St Luke’s Medical Center and St Luke’s College of Medicine. The workshop was conducted in collaboration with the Australasian Cochrane Centre, SEA-ORCHID Project and UK Cochrane Centre.

The workshop attracted a record number of Filipino health researchers with over 130 participants filling the hall to capacity. Following the core workshop, six systematic review authors benefited from the expertise of the facilitators at the two-day Review Completion Workshop.

Further training events are planned for 2008, particularly to support existing review authors with the changes to RevMan 5. Details of workshops will be posted here and on cochrane.org. Those interested in becoming involved in Cochrane activities should first contact the relevant Cochrane review group. For local support and advice, please contact Belen Dofitas or Mario Festin, our local SEA-ORCHID Project investigator, who can help link new contributors with existing groups of authors and keep you informed of future events.

Local contact:
Dr Belen Dofitas
St Luke’s Medical Center
belendofitas@gmail.com

Dr Mario Festin
Deputy Director for Health Operations
Philippine General Hospital
mfestinmd@yahoo.com