The Cochrane Collaboration in Primary Care: an international resource for evidence-based practice of family medicine.

In recent years, promoting the use of evidence-based decision making in health care has been gaining popularity. This method of decision making requires that the results of primary research be compiled in a systematic manner and made accessible to those involved in the decision-making process. Failure to do this may result in a considerable lag period before therapies of proven effectiveness are implemented in medical practice or ineffective therapies are withdrawn from practice. The Cochrane Collaboration in Primary Health Care was established as part of an international effort to facilitate the preparation, maintenance, and dissemination of systematic reviews of the effects of health care provided in, or relevant to family practice. This paper describes the progress made in establishing the Cochrane Collaboration as an international register of randomized controlled trials in family medicine that will subsequently be used for undertaking systematic reviews in the discipline.