With a review portfolio of more than 650 titles, it is important that we prioritise the preparation and update of those reviews that are the most important to the people who use them - our Stakeholders. This helps us to use our resources efficiently by focusing on the most important reviews. What do we mean by 'Stakeholders'? A Stakeholder is anyone who might use our reviews - this can include individuals, consumer organisations, professional bodies, guideline developers and policy makers.
About every two to three years we engage with a number of our UK Stakeholders in order to identify which review titles are important to them. We last carried out a UK Stakeholder Prioritisation Process in 2012.
We work closely with the WHO Executive Guideline Steering Group for Updating WHO Maternal and Perinatal Health Recommendations and the Cochrane reviews that underpin them. We collaborated with WHO on their prioritisation processes in 2017 and 2019. The process was repeated in March/April 2021.
In 2020, we carried out a stakeholder survey to identify 10 Cochrane reviews of important to NICE and the NHS - you find out more here.
Reviews that are part of a commissioned project are also considered to be a priority for updating. Such projects might involve updating a suite of reviews that are needed by a deadline in order to inform national or international guideline development.
We also draw on Cochrane Library publication metrics to identify other reviews as being a priority for updating - some of these are listed on Cochrane's priority review list.
We were also involved in the OMIPPP project (Outcomes Most Important to Patients, Public and Practitioners) in collaboration with Sally Crowe and Ann Daly (Crowe Associates). The final report from that project can be accessed here.