Table 1 Key methodological developments in Cochrane Reviews
From: Cochrane methods - twenty years experience in developing systematic review methods
2014 | ‘Risk of bias’ tool extension for non standard randomized studies (for example, crossover and cluster trials) and non-randomized studies |
2012 | Introduction of the Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR) standards |
2011 | Launch of the Cochrane Methods Innovation fund |
2008 | Release of version 5 of RevMan incorporating ‘Risk of Bias’ tool |
|  | Grade profiler software (GRADEpro) introduced for ‘Summary of findings’ tables in RevMan |
2002 | I2 statistics measuring inconsistency in meta-analysis [22] |
1996 | Launch of The Cochrane Library launched by Update Software incorporating The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and The Cochrane Review Methodology Database |
| Â | Bias assessment classification system introduced for allocation concealment [27] |
1994 | First publication demonstration of The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews |
| Â | Publication of the first edition of the Cochrane Handbook[26] |
| Â | Registration of the first Methods Groups: Statistical MG and Individual Patient Data MG |
1993 | Formal launch of the Cochrane Collaboration at the first Cochrane Colloquium in Oxford, UK |
| Â | Release of version 1 of Review Manager (RevMan) |
1992 | Formal launch of the first UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford |
1988 | Publication of the first in a series of overviews (meta-analyses) in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology |
1976 | Term ‘meta-analysis’ first introduced [25] |
1972 | Publication of Archie Cochrane’s Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services which first drew attention to the collective ignorance about the effects of health care [1] |