Abstract
We are delighted to announce a new journal feature for Global Advances for Integrative Medicine and Health (GAIMH). In this series, we will present clinically oriented summaries of recent Cochrane reviews within the field of integrative medicine and health. Our goal is to engage both researchers and clinicians as authors to provide not just a summary of the Cochrane review, but to particularly highlight key clinical implications critically grounded within the rich, and often complex, context of the research findings. The inaugural column focuses on a 2020 Cochrane review on acupuncture for low back pain. While it has been several years since the review was published, the topic remains timely and important.
The Cochrane collaboration is an international non-profit organization founded in 1993 to support the production and dissemination of methodologically rigorous, unbiased systematic reviews of the evidence on healthcare interventions. Cochrane was organized as a collection of Cochrane Review Groups producing systematic reviews focused on different body systems or health problems, accompanied by several Cochrane Fields promoting reviews and stakeholder engagement in areas spanning multiple health conditions. One of the first Cochrane Fields was Cochrane Complementary Medicine, founded in 1996 by Dr. Brian Berman at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Notably, the University of Maryland was one of the original 8 founding institutions of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health, the parent organization of GAIMH. As of 2024, Cochrane has published several hundred systematic reviews on integrative medicine topics such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, and mind-body approaches, and more than 100 protocols have been published for reviews currently in progress! Over the past 30 years, Cochrane Complementary Medicine has been a critical voice to bring rigorous evidence to researchers, clinicians, and the public, and has been an important force to inform policy change for the field. One of the key mechanisms for connecting Cochrane to researchers and clinicians in integrative medicine has been journal columns that have helped to summarize and provide further context for interpretation of Cochrane reviews. We are pleased to be a part of this endeavor and hope you will find this column valuable and informative.