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(Stroke. 2002;33:1739.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Cochrane Corner

Vladimir Hachinski, MD, DSc, Editor-in-Chief

From the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Correspondence to Dr Vladimir Hachinski, UWO Research Park, 100 Collip Circle, Suite 116, London, Ontario, Canada N6G 4X8.

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

We will never have enough data, so we must do the best with what we acquire. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of clinical trials represent one approach to maximizing the usefulness of clinical data. The Cochrane Collaboration thrives on the analyses of the results of tens of thousands of controlled trials in its database. The Collaboration bears the name of the British epidemiologist Archibald L. Cochrane, "Archie" to his friends. Cochrane excelled as an epidemiologist but prevailed with his seminal 1971 book, Effectiveness and Efficacy: Random Reflections on Health Services. In this book he advocated the use of systematic, ongoing reviews of clinical trials as the best single guide to what works in medicine. His influence grew even after his death in 1988 and culminated in the founding of the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993. As he noted in his own obituary, "He was a man with severe porphyria who smoked too much and was without the consolation of a wife, a religious belief, or a merit award—but he didn’t do so badly."¹

One of the most active areas within the Cochrane Collaboration is the Stroke Group. Prof Graeme Hankey, Associate Editor of Stroke for the Pacific Rim, has been an active member of this group. Through his efforts and those of Prof Peter Sandercock from Edinburgh, Stroke has agreed to publish brief summaries of meta-analysis of the Cochrane Collaboration’s Stroke Group. This will provide the readership of Stroke with the main conclusions of relevant analyses and the Cochrane Collaboration with . . . [Full Text of this Article]