The Cochrane Rehabilitation Ebook Project : a knowledge translation initiative

Background. Cochrane Rehabilitation (CR) is working on the production of an Ebook to systematically present all the relevant evidence of rehabilitation interest included in the Cochrane Systematic Reviews (CSRs). In line with the Cochrane Knowledge Translation (KT) strategy, the Ebook aims to fill to know-do gap addressing four different audiences producing one different summary for each of them, structured to meet the needs of the different end-users according to their different knowledge skills, and outcomes of interest: clinicians, medical and health professional students, policy decision makers and rehabilitation health care managers, patients and caregivers (consumers). Objectives. The aim of this study is to present the CR Ebook project. Methods. After identifying all the CSRs relevant to rehabilitation, residents from two Italian universities have been involved and instructed on how to write the different summaries, using a structured template, based on the Cochrane’s Dissemination checklist, and following the Cochrane Norway language guidelines. Two Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) physicians (AM, MGC) revised them, a second revision was provided by a member of CR and a third by at least two among a group of international editors coming from the European Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) Bodies supporting and co-authoring the ebook. A last check was then performed by the another PRM physician (FG), before the final decision by the European PRM Bodies took place. Results. Up to date, 375 CSRs published between 2014 and August 2019 have been identified. Of these, 145 (3 for 2018, 68 for 2017, 60 for 2016 and 14 for 2015) have been assigned to and summarized by the residents. 96 of them (45 for 2017, 48 for 2016 and 3 for 2015) have been finally approved and uploaded on the Ebook website. The remaining ones are now undergoing one of the two processes of revision. Conclusions. The CR Ebook will be officially launched in the European Bodies Meeting, postponed from March to September 2020, and will be progressively filled with new set of summaries completed and approved. The process started with the CSRs published in 2016 and 2017, and is now proceeding simultaneously onwards and backwards. The project will never end: the number of CSRs to be summarized is meant to increase every time a CSR is tagged as relevant to rehabilitation, making the Ebook a “live” and updated source of evidence. CR is also planning to translate the summaries into different languages, as it is already done for other KT products (i.e. bloghshots), in order to reach the most wider audience possible. Patient or healthcare consumer involvement. Patients or healthcare consumers have not been directly involved in the project, but represents one of the different audiences the Ebook addresses.