The Caribbean Branch of the US Cochrane Center (CBUSCC) was launched on 6 June 2013. The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica, through its Tropical Medicine Research Institute, will serve as the CBUSCC’s main office. UWI Mona hosted the CBUSCC launch event, along with a symposium focusing on ‘Translation of research for policy impact and practice: an evidence-based approach’, which was held on Friday, 7 June.

UWI Mona has a longstanding relationship with the concepts which drive the work of The Cochrane Collaboration; the metal bird statue located outside the Tropical Medicine Research Institute was donated to the University by Dr Archie Cochrane, after whom The Cochrane Collaboration is named. The metal bird statue, known as a Savacou, was created by Jamaican artist Ronald Moody (1900-1984) in the 1950s. The Savacou takes its name from the so-called ‘bird-god’ of Carib mythology, who controlled thunder and strong winds.

The CBUSCC will represent and promote The Cochrane Collaboration across the English-speaking Caribbean. Members of the CBUSCC at UWI Mona include the Co-Directors, Damian Francis and Marshall Tulloch-Reid, and staff member Nadia Bennett. Additional members include Chisa Cumberbatch, Health Planner for the Ministry of Health in Barbados, and Ian Hambleton, Professor at the UWI Cavehill in Barbados.

In his keynote address at the CBUSCC launch, Cochrane CEO Mark Wilson said, “I am thrilled that this new Caribbean branch will become a bridgehead for the promotion of evidence-based healthcare in the region and … in the lives of the millions of people who need and deserve the most effective healthcare.”

Photo (L-R): Damian Francis, Nadia Bennett, and Marshall Tulloch-Reid

For more go to: http://www.cochrane.org/features/launch-caribbean-branch-us-cochrane-center