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Canadian researchers awarded international prize for COVID-19 Evidence Network


March 3, 2022

Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw, The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa“This collaboration shows that if we all work together during a global crisis, we can get timely, high-quality evidence to decision makers and save lives,” said Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw.COVID-19 has illustrated the power of science to rapidly create life-saving vaccines, treatments and best practices, but it has also revealed many examples of repetitive, low-quality and wasteful research. 

Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw and Dr. John Lavis recently accepted the international REWARD prize from Cochrane on behalf of the COVID-19 Evidence Network (COVID-END) for their efforts to get reliable and timely COVID-19 evidence summaries to decision makers, while reducing waste in research. 

COVID-END now includes 58 partner organizations around the world. They produce biweekly evidence summaries for decision-makers, while also providing tools for researchers interested in conducting systematic reviews. 

Cochrane commended COVID-END for its global reach, including participation from low- and middle-income countries. They also noted that their approach could be adapted for other global crises in the future. 

See the media release and award presentation from Cochrane and learn more about COVID-END. Dr. Grimshaw was previously interviewed about COVID-END by the Ottawa Citizen.

“This collaboration shows that if we all work together during a global crisis, we can get timely, high-quality evidence to decision makers and save lives,” said Dr. Grimshaw, head of The Ottawa Hospital’s Centre for Implementation Research and professor at the University of Ottawa.

COVID-END is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is co-led by Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw (The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa), Dr. John Lavis (McMaster University), Dr. Andrea Tricco (SPOR Evidence Alliance at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto), Dr. Nancy Santesso (Cochrane Canada) and Maureen Smith (Patient Partner).

The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa and supported by The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.