About Us
Australian Satellite of the Cochrane EPOC Group Staff
Russell Gruen, Director
Russell Gruen is Director of the Satellite and responsible for its overall leadership. Russ is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Melbourne, a trauma surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and has extensive research experience in systematic reviews. Russell’s research work has focused on the delivery of services to remote areas and the role of specialist outreach. He has been a consultant on rural service delivery and trauma system planning in Australia, Nepal and Vietnam, and participates on national advisory committees relating to care of severely injured patients and rural specialist workforce issues. His work also addresses access to services for Indigenous Australians, population model specialist service delivery, and referrals from primary to secondary care. He has been interested in developing methods to better take into account contextual heterogeneity in systematic reviews. A project funded by the Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative, the ‘Global Evidence Mapping (GEM) Initiative’ is building a network of experts from academic institutions, health services and organizations such as the Cochrane Collaboration to develop ways of characterising and contextualising research: www.evidencemap.org
Emma Tavender, Co-ordinator
Emma Tavender is the Co-ordinator of the Satellite and responsible for its day to day management. With a Masters in Healthcare Studies and 9 years of working for the Cochrane Collaboration; Emma brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in Cochrane review author support and training, undertaking systematic reviews and project management.
Jason Wasiak, Research Fellow
Jason Wasiak is an experienced Cochrane review author and trainer working part-time for the satellite. Jason has a Masters in Public Health and is also a Research Fellow at the Alfred Hospital Burns Unit; involved in the integration of research evidence into burns management through systematic reviews and the development and implementation of evidence based practice.
What we do
Objectives
- Identify and help produce priority EPOC reviews relevant to Australia and the surrounding region.
- Support EPOC review activity through training and mentoring researchers in Australia.
- Foster a culture of evidence-based health policy and knowledge translation by promoting the use of The Cochrane Library, and EPOC reviews.
- Collaborate with the Australasian Cochrane Centre and other Australian-based Cochrane review groups to further the work of The Cochrane Collaboration in the region.
- Contribute to the international effort of synthesising research to improve evidence uptake.
- Support the EPOC editorial base in Canada by editing, producing and updating EPOC reviews.