The US Cochrane Center, based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, has closed. Director Professor Kay Dickersin, and Associate Directors Tianjing Li and Roberta Scherer have stepped down from their positions, but will continue to work with Cochrane in other capacities. Cochrane’s Governing Board Co-Chairs Martin Burton and Cindy Farquhar thanked them for their commitment to Cochrane’s work over many years: “Professor Kay Dickersin has led the US Cochrane Center since it was founded, and has been at the heart of Cochrane’s work in the United States for over 20 years,” Cindy said. “On behalf of the entire Cochrane community, including the many people she has so generously and graciously supported as Director of the Center, we would like to thank her and all of her team at the Johns Hopkins School.” In their letter to the Governing Board and the Centre Directors’ Executive, Professor Dickersin, Dr Li and Dr Scherer wrote: “Over the years, we have thoroughly enjoyed working with you, other Centre Directors, and our colleagues at US Cochrane West and Cochrane Caribbean. We wish you all the best and lots of success in growing Cochrane.”
Cochrane plans to establish a new US Network and will issue an invitation soon for expressions of interest from institutions and organizations in the United States to join the Network and host a new Cochrane US Center, which will manage the Network including the two existing US Associate Centers: Cochrane US West, which opened in 2015 based at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon; and Cochrane Caribbean, launched in June 2013 at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.