Each year on 20 October, we celebrate World Evidence-Based Healthcare (EBHC) Day. Once again, Cochrane First Aid is proud to be Evidence Ambassador. This year’s theme, Collaborative Knowledge Communication, highlights the importance of sharing, interpreting, and applying evidence together to improve health outcomes worldwide.For this year’s campaign, we are contributing in several ways:

World First Aid Day is celebrated annually on the second Saturday of September. This global event encourages everyone to get actively involved through concrete actions, contributing to the emergence of a proactive and supportive citizenry, serving as the first link in the Chain of Survival Behaviors.

A newly published Cochrane systematic review, co-authored by the Cochrane First Aid team, provides insights into the effectiveness of physical first aid training for laypeople (i.e. individuals without formal healthcare education).

From 20-22 May, we attended a face-to-face meeting in Paris, France, dedicated to our newly approved Cochrane Thematic Group on Acute and Emergency Care. 

Although the Cochrane First Aid Field focuses on the layperson as the provider of care, we are also part of the Cochrane Acute and Emergency Care Thematic Group.

We have said it before and we will say it again: our aim is to break down linguistic barriers as much as possible by making Cochrane evidence available in multiple languages. So far, we have been producing blogshots in 13 different languages. Now, thanks to our multilingual network, we have started translating our visual abstracts into Spanish and Italian. 

Each year on 25 April, World Malaria Day highlights the need for continued investment in and commitment to malaria prevention and control. After years of steady declines in malaria cases and deaths, progress has stalled.

Our biggest achievement of 2024 is the approval of our application for a new Thematic Group on Acute and Emergency Care. This partnership is designed to advance collaboration and research, improve the quality and accessability of evidence, and enhance patient outcomes in time-sensitive and critical areas of healthcare.

Cochrane has announced its scientific strategy for 2025-2030, focused on tackling the most pressing global health issues that drive inequity. This strategy prioritizes four research areas:

The team of Cochrane First Aid wishes you Happy Holidays and all the best for 2025!We will be taking a short break between 21 December and 5 January. See you in 2025!