Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center
at Penn Dental Medicine
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. Since its inception, Cochrane has defined the methodological standards for conducting systematic reviews around the world.
The Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center at Penn Dental Medicine builds upon the work of Cochrane Oral Health, engaging researchers from around the globe in systematic reviews summarizing of 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. The Center will also focus on extensive capacity building and training a new generation of evidence synthesis researchers who need to face the challenges of a global oral health field that demands trustworthy, continuously updated, and user-tailored syntheses of the best available evidence.
The creation of this new entity places Penn Dental Medicine at the center of the oral health evidence synthesis field globally, in alignment with our mission statement: “To transform global oral health and well-being through exceptional clinical care, innovation, education, and research.”
Leadership
Dr. Alonso Carrasco-Labra, a leading authority in evidence-based health care, is as an Associate Professor in the Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences. Prior to coming to Penn Dental Medicine in October 2021, he served as Senior Director of the Department of Evidence Synthesis and Translation Research within the American Dental Association (ADA) Science and Research Institute and as Director of ADA’s Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry. He has served as clinical practice guideline and policy methodologist for the Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO), the World Bank, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), as well as governments and health care agencies worldwide. For many years, Dr. Carrasco-Labra has also been active in the Cochrane Collaboration, an independent global organization internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care.
Contact/Support
For further information on the Center for Integrative Global Oral Health, please contact pdm-cigoh@dental.upenn.edu.
