Yesterday I wrote to Rachel Marshall, the Cochrane Senior Editor who is managing the project to update Cochrane’s review of Exercise Therapy for ME/CFS.
There have been no updates on the progress of the review since July last year, despite a commitment from Cochrane to
I copied in Cochrane’s Consumer Engagement Officer Richard Morley who is also listed as supporting the review, Nicholas Henschke, lead author, Hilda Bastian leader of the Independent Advisory Group for the review, Toby Lasserson, Cochrane Deputy Editor in Chief, and Samantha Roberts, NICE Chief Executive.
Dear Rachel
(cc Toby Lasserson, Samantha Roberts, Hilda Bastian, Nicholas Henschke, Richard Morley)
I am writing in a personal capacity and not as a representative of my employer.
There has been no monthly progress report about the update of the Exercise review from Hilda since July last year, and I understand the very sad reasons for that. Without knowing at what stage the review is, I am writing to suggest something that you may already have decided to do.
In August last year Cochrane and NICE signed a collaboration agreement (attached) to facilitate the sharing of data and analyses with each other.
The Parties agree to work together from time to time to facilitate the sharing of literature searches, unpublished extracted data and analyses and assessments (“Unpublished Data”) to inform the development of NICE guidelines and Cochrane Reviews as per the terms of this Agreement (the “Purpose”).
As NICE have just published a new guideline for ME/CFS informed by a rigorous and comprehensive evidence review, it would make sense for NICE to share the relevant data and analyses from their review with Cochrane rather than Cochrane starting the whole process again.
Please could you let me know what stage the review is at, and whether you are already planning to ask NICE to share the data and analyses from their evidence review. If you have not considered this idea, please could you let me know your response to it?
With best wishes
Caroline
Caroline Struthers
Senior EQUATOR Research Fellow UK EQUATOR Centre, University of Oxford, United Kingdom