Cochrane reviews in neonatology: past, present and future.

The Neonatal Review Group of the Cochrane Collaboration is dedicated to improving outcomes of newborn infants through the collection and synthesis of the highest quality evidence. Much has been achieved with limited resources. Future challenges for the group are to maintain and extend current reviews of therapeutic interventions, to develop bridging reviews to assist clinicians in applying current evidence more easily, to expand the scope of the Cochrane Library to include diagnostic tests, and to utilize techniques such as prospective meta-analysis to answer remaining questions in the field. In future, the Neonatal Review Group needs to assist reviewers in developing countries to prepare reviews relevant to their settings that will reduce the global burden of neonatal mortality and morbidity.