07 March 2023

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Penn Dental Medicine becomes first Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center

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Penn Dental Medicine’s Center for Integrative Global Oral Health has partnered with Cochrane Oral Health to form the Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center at Penn Dental Medicine, the first oral-health-oriented Cochrane collaborative group in the world. According to a news release, the new center marks a significant step in helping to expand evidence-based knowledge to inform practice and oral health policy worldwide.

Cochrane Oral Health, headquartered at The University of Manchester in the U.K., is one of the groups within Cochrane, a global independent not-for-profit network that produces systematic reviews across all areas of medicine. Cochrane has more than 37,000 contributors from over 190 countries working together to produce up-to-date, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest to help inform decisions about health care. 

Karla Soares-Weiser, Cochrane’s editor-in-chief, said in the news release that the international partnership will enhance the impact of the oral health reviews and build on the effective and long-term contribution made by the group in this area.

The Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center at Penn Dental Medicine will engage researchers from around the globe in systematic reviews summarizing the best available evidence on oral health topics to help clinicians, policymakers, patients and caregivers make well-informed decisions. Currently, Cochrane Oral Health has a curated collection of more than 200 systematic reviews and meta-analyses of over 34 clinical areas of dentistry. Cochrane Oral Health publishes its reviews, updates, and protocols in the Cochrane Library and those produced through the Collaborating Center at Penn Dental Medicine will become part of the Cochrane Library as well.

“This new partnership places Penn Dental Medicine at the center of the oral-health-evidence-synthesis field globally and aligns with the school’s mission to transform global oral health and well-being through exceptional clinical care, innovation, education, and research,” said Dr. Alonso Carrasco-Labra, director of the Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center at Penn Dental Medicine and associate professor in the Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences.

The center will also focus on extensive capacity building and training a new generation of evidence-synthesis researchers and policymakers. A new master’s degree in oral and population health program is set to launch at Penn Dental Medicine this year, and the new Cochrane Collaborating Center at Penn Dental Medicine will present its first workshop in June 2023. 

The Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center at Penn Dental Medicine also adds to Penn’s affiliation with Cochrane. In 2019, Penn Medicine’s Center for Evidence-based Practice was one of 11 institutions nationwide to join the Cochrane U.S. Network, which was created to expand Cochrane’s national impact.

About the University of Manchester

Part of the prestigious Russell Group of universities, The University of Manchester ranks 35th in the world, 9th in Europe and 5th in the U.K. in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, 2021, and is the largest single-site university in the U.K., with the biggest student community. The University is recognized as a global powerhouse of research, with 93% of the University’s research activity assessed as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, making a positive impact across culture and creativity, economic development and inequalities, health and wellbeing, innovation and commercialization, and sustainability and climate change.