How accurate are routine laboratory tests in predicting mortality and deterioration to severe or critical COVID-19 in people with SARS-CoV-2?

The Cochrane Neonatal Group produces and updates Cochrane Reviews to provide comprehensive coverage of the evidence on the care of babies and infants. In this podcast, we present an important topic in neonatal care: the management of pain and discomfort during spinal taps in newborns, for which a new Cochrane review was published in September 2023. In this podcast, two of the authors talk about the findings. Ehsan Hedayati and Sara Pessano, welcome to the podcast.

The Cochrane Skin group has produced more than 100 reviews. These were added to in August 2024 by a new network meta-analysis of topical anti-inflammatory treatments for eczema. We asked lead author, Robert Boyle from Imperial College London in the UK to tell us about the condition and the findings of his review in this podcast.

Mobile phones feature widely in the delivery of health care, and they are also used informally by people delivering this care. This is explored in an August 2024 Cochrane qualitative evidence synthesis of healthcare workers’ use of their own phones at work. In this podcast, two of the authors, Nelson Sewankambo from Makerere University in Uganda and Claire Glenton from the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences talk about why they did the review and its findings.

In this podcast, review author Jan Verbakel talks with first author Liselore De Rop, a PhD candidate of the KU Leuven in Belgium who is involved in COVID-19 research, about their August 2024 review of the accuracy of routine laboratory tests to predict mortality and deterioration for patients with severe or critical COVID-19.

There are many Cochrane Reviews about the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis and those involved in managing this condition also need to know about its prognosis, especially in the presence of other illnesses. We can now help them in regard to diabetes and tuberculosis, with a new review published in August 2024. Here are two of the authors, Juan Franco and Yang Guo from the Institute of General Practice, Medical Faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in Germany, to tell us more.

Among the 20 or so Cochrane reviews of treatments for myocardial infarction is one that reached its third update in August 2024. It looks at the effects of stem cells, and we asked new lead author, Peter-Paul Zwetsloot from University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands to tell us about the importance of the review and the latest findings.

The Cochrane Library contains several reviews on the effects of different ways of organising and delivering medical care. One of these reviews, published in March 2024, summarises the evidence on models for delivering medical care to older adults living in residential aged care facilities. In this podcast, Liesl Grobler talks with lead author, Polina Putrik, both from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, about the review.

Recent developments in treatment for cystic fibrosis have targeted the underlying genetic defect and these have been life-changing for some patients. Kevin Southern from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the UK is an Editor for the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis Group and an author of the updated review of these corrective therapies, which was published in November 2023. Here he is to tell us about the review.

Cochrane has produced several systematic reviews that assess the potential benefits and harms of medicine that might help to prevent bone loss in people with breast cancer. In this podcast, Claire Iannizzi talks with lead author Anne Adams, both from the University Hospital Cologne in Germany, about a review of different bone-modifying agents for reducing bone loss in women with non-metastatic breast cancer, which was published for the first time in July 2024.

The topics for some Cochrane Reviews cut across multiple Review Groups. This is the case with an April 2024 review of interventions to stop or reduce alcohol consumption during pregnancy, which is relevant to both Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth and Drugs and Alcohol. Here’s one of the authors, Julia Sinclair from the University of Southampton in the UK to tell us more.