Podcasts From The Cochrane Library

There are many Cochrane Reviews of possible treatments for dementia. One of the earliest of these looked at the effects of a drug called galantamine, which is found in daffodil bulbs, and the review was updated in November 2024.

The Cochrane Collaboration has produced several systematic reviews of interventions focusing on the problem of antimicrobial resistance. In January 2025, these were added to with a new review about the role of community pharmacies and, in this podcast, Sadatoshi Matsuoka, talks with lead author Moe Moe Thandar from the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Japan about this pressing issue.

Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth has produced many reviews of interventions relevant to the organization and delivery of maternity care. In this podcast, two of the group’s researchers, Cristina Fernandez Turienzo and Hannah Rayment-Jones, midwives and senior research fellows at King’s College London in the UK, discuss their April 2024 update for one of these reviews, looking at the effects of midwife continuity of care models for childbearing women.

In its nearly 30 years, the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group produced more than 250 reviews. One of its last, published in March 2024, looked at cognitive behavioural therapy for first episode and recent-onset psychosis. Here’s lead author, Susanna Mayer from the Technical University of Munich in Germany to tell us more.

There are more than 100 Cochrane reviews relevant to dementia, and these were added to in December 2024 with a new review of the accuracy of self-administered cognitive assessment tools for its detection.

There are more than 60 Cochrane Reviews relevant to multiple sclerosis and, one of these, a network meta-analysis of immunomodulators and immunosuppressants for progressive multiple sclerosis, was updated in September 2024. We asked one of the authors, Francesco Nonino from the Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna in Italy, to tell us about the condition and the latest evidence in this podcast.

Helping young people develop a healthy lifestyle could have long term implications for their health and wellbeing. In this podcast, Mia Parkinson, Cochrane Communications Officer, talks with Daniel Lee from the University of Newcastle in Callaghan, Australia, about the December 2024 update of the Cochrane review of ways to enhance the implementation of school-based policies or practices to improve diet and physical activity and reduce obesity, and the use of tobacco and alcohol.

Infectious diseases are a major cause of illness and death among older adults. Vaccines can prevent some of these diseases but the uptake of vaccination among older adults varies across settings and groups. Communication with their healthcare worker can help older people makes decisions about vaccination and this is explored in the July 2021 Cochrane qualitative evidence synthesis of healthcare workers’ perceptions and experiences of communicating with people over 50 about vaccination. In this podcast, two authors of this synthesis, Simon Lewin from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Claire Glenton from the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, discuss why they did the review and what they found.

The Cochrane Heart Group’s reviews cover a very wide range of topics, including several relevant to cardiac surgery. In March 2024, their review of using prophylactic corticosteroids for cardiopulmonary bypass was updated. In this podcast, Carla Lucarelli from Imperial College London speaks with new lead author, Riccardo Abbasciano from the University of Leicester in the UK about this latest version of the review.

Cochrane Reviews cover a very wide range of interventions for people with heart disease. One of these looks at exercise-based rehabilitation for patients with heart failure and it was updated for the fourth time in March 2024. Two of the authors, Rod Taylor and Cal Molloy from the University of Glasgow in the UK, discuss the latest findings in this podcast.

Cochrane Breast Cancer has produced several reviews relevant to the detection of breast cancer. In April 2023, these were added to with a new review of training health workers in low- and middle-income countries to do breast examinations. Here is the lead author, Shahin Sayed from the Aga Khan University in Nairobi Kenya, to tell us about the importance of the review and its findings.

Alongside Cochrane Reviews of the effects of original drugs for the treatment of some diseases, reviews are starting to appear of the effects of biosimilars for these drugs. In this podcast, Roses Parker, Cochrane’s Commissioning Editor tells us about the evidence in one of these reviews, published in November 2024, which considers biosimilar monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of patients with cancer.

In this podcast, you’ll hear from Marian Showell of the University of Auckland in New Zealand about a significant concern in medical research known as publication bias. The updated Cochrane Methodology Review was published in November 2024, bringing together evidence on the size of this problem, drawing on more than 200 studies.

Globally, postpartum haemorrhage is responsible for a quarter of maternal deaths after childbirth. Tears of the perineum, which are common in vaginal births, are a major contributor to this excessive blood loss, and a variety of techniques are used to try to prevent them. The effects of these interventions are reviewed in a new Cochrane Review published in October 2024 and two of the authors, Tilly Fox and Kerry Dwan from The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, talk about the findings in this podcast.

I'm pleased to welcome you to this podcast for a crucial topic in the care of preterm babies: the use of surfactant therapy guided by tests of their lung function. Practice is evolving in this area, and we're here to discuss the latest evidence. Three guests are joining me today, Greta Sibrecht and Franek Borys, authors of the October 2023 Cochrane review, and, later, Anna Lavizzari, lead investigator for one of the ongoing studies.

Helping people develop good eating habits early in life could have long term implications for their health and wellbeing. In this podcast, Mia Parkinson, Cochrane Communications Officer, talks with Rebecca Hodder from the University of Newcastle in Callaghan, Australia, lead author of the Cochrane review of programs to increase eating of fruit and vegetables among children aged 5 years and under, the latest version of which was published in September 2024.

Women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer treatment or risk reduction can choose among different options for breast reconstruction. In this podcast, the lead author of a new Cochrane review from October 2024, Nicola Rocco, breast oncoplastic surgeon and assistant professor at the University Hospital Federico II of Naples (Italy) discusses its findings for the comparison of implants and autologous tissue for breast reconstruction following mastectomy, with one of his c0-authors, Corrado Rispoli, from Monaldi Hospital in Naples.

Age-related macular degeneration is a progressive, sight-threatening disease affecting the retina at the back of the eye. There are several Cochrane Reviews of its treatment and, in October 2024 we published a new review of the use of artificial intelligence for its diagnosis. Here’s the review’s first author, Chaerim Kang from Brown University in the USA, to tell us more.

One of our most highly cited and largest reviews, published in 2012, looks at interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community. During its updating, it’s being split into a series of smaller reviews focused on specific interventions. In this podcast, two authors, Amy Drahota and Heather Mackenzie from the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton in the UK, talk about the update for the studies of psychological and educational interventions, which was published in October 2024.

In August 2024, we published the latest update of the Cochrane Review of the effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on women with premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. In this podcast, two of the authors, Jeppe Bennekou Schroll and Cecilie Jespersen, both from Cochrane Denmark, talk about the need for the review and its latest findings.