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More Press Releases in: Medicine & Healthcare, The Cochrane Library
May 13, 2015

Evidence Aid researchers support international efforts in Nepal

As the second major earthquake struck Nepal less than three weeks after more than 8,000 people died in a devastating quake, UK-based Evidence Aid joins the world’s renewed response. It’s helping health workers decide what to do, and what to avoid. Helping to make humanitarian action as effective as possible.

Evidence Aid is an international initiative set up to provide the best evidence on the effects of interventions before, during and after disasters. Today, Evidence Aid is providing much needed knowledge support to health workers in Nepal. It’s working with key partners in the region, UK agencies such as Public Health England, and international organisations such as the United Nations and World Health Organisation, to provide evidence-based resources to help focus relief efforts.

Evidence Aid provides free access to reliable, independent summaries of the effects of different interventions, actions and strategies. Many of these come from Cochrane, the foremost source of robust research evidence for health care around the world. Evidence Aid was founded by Cochrane’s former global chair, Professor Mike Clarke, the day after the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.

All the information is on the Evidence Aid website. It covers injuries, mental health and water-borne diseases; as well other health topics relevant to the recovery of the tens of thousands of people affected by the earthquakes. Whether someone’s got a computer or a smartphone, they can get the knowledge. Amidst concerns about mental health, it shows that a type of psychological counselling known as brief de-briefing is probably useless, if not harmful, for preventing post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Professor Mike Clarke, based in Queen’s University Belfast, said “The people of Nepal need to receive effective aid, based on robust evidence. We’re making this information available free to all, helping people make the best possible decisions and choices amidst the chaos and the devastation.”

Professor Virginia Murray, of Public Health England, and a member of Evidence Aid’s Advisory Board, said “Some of us are fortunate to have ready access to the research evidence that might help when responding to disasters. Evidence Aid is making it much easier for everyone to have this access, for free; enabling them to use up-to-date and reliable evidence in their decision making."

Since the first earthquake, Evidence Aid has been in contact with members of Cochrane based in Nepal and, through them, frontline health workers in the country. It has also been getting the evidence to the response teams who have travelled to the region.

Claire Allen, Knowledge Manager for Evidence Aid in Oxford, said "We have been in contact with colleagues in the region since the first quake. We know that the resources are being shared and helping people might decisions during these terrible times."

For media inquiries please contact Michelle Cassidy, Queen’s Communications Office on +4428 9097 5310 or email [email protected]

Or contact Professor Mike Clarke, Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast email: [email protected]

Notes to editors:

About Evidence Aid

Evidence Aid is an international initiative to improve access to the findings of high quality research and to place it in the disaster context. It takes systematic reviews that may have come from well-resourced settings and helps to deliver knowledge on what to do in situations that are far from that, such as after a disaster. It tries to transfer knowledge that might have come from studies in emergency rooms in the US, where there might be hours to deal with a casualty, to situations where dozens of people with broken limbs and other injuries are queuing outside in the open. Evidence Aid was founded after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004 and works with partners across the humanitarian and evidence sectors, including the WHO, Save The Children and Medicines Sans Frontieres, highlighting relevant reviews, providing context specific summaries and compiling bundles of information resources for disasters and other emergencies, such as the Nepal earthquake. Its small team is spread across the world, but there is a focal point in Queen’s University Belfast, where some of the reviews are being prepared.  Find out more at www.EvidenceAid.org and on twitter @EvidenceAid

 

About Cochrane
Cochrane is a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers and people interested in health. Cochrane produces reviews which study all of the best available evidence generated through research and make it easier to inform decisions about health. These are called systematic reviews. Cochrane is a not-for profit organisation with collaborators from more than 120 countries working together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. Our work is recognised as representing an international gold standard for high quality, trusted information. Find out more at cochrane.orgFollow us on twitter @cochranecollab