Cochrane is made up of 13,000 members and over 50,000 supporters come from more than 130 countries, worldwide. Our volunteers and contributors are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere.
Cochrane is an incredible community of people who all play their part in improving health and healthcare globally. We believe that by putting trusted evidence at the heart of health decisions we can achieve a world of improved health for all.
Many of our contributors are young people working with Cochrane as researchers, citizen scientists, medical students, and volunteer language translators and we want to recognize the work of this generation of contributors as part of this series called, Cochrane’s “30 under 30."
In this series, we will interview 30 young people, 30 years old or younger who are contributing to Cochrane activities in a range of ways, all promoting evidence-informed health decision making across the world.
We will be hearing from them in a series of interviewees published over the coming months.
We're keen to hear from you. Would you like to take part in this series? Do you know someone you'd like to see interviewed? Contact kabbotts@cochrane.org. Or if you want to know more about Cochrane’s work contact membership@cochrane.org where our community support team will be happy to answer your questions.
Name: Carlo Frassetto (on Twitter at @CarloFrassetto)
Age: 27
Occupation: Emergency Registered Nurse – Member of the European Health Parliament (Committee of Disease prevention and Management) - President of Italian Nursing Students association.
Program: Graduate student at Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Rome, Italy) and Master degree in Nursing Management and Public Health.
How did you first hear about Cochrane?
I first heard about Cochrane as a Bachelor Nursing Student during my last year. During that time, I read about Cochrane’s history and the importance of Cochrane systematic. I was impressed at risk of bias approach of the Collaboration and its impact on health politics.
I chose to get involved with Cochrane because of the opportunities available to learn more about evidence synthesis and the process by which high quality information is made accessible to consumers. I look forward to future opportunities to stay engaged with the organization.
How did you become involved with Cochrane? What is your background?
I have a strong interest in Nursing, Emergency medicine, Public health, Health Politics, epidemiology, and evidence synthesis with a specific aim of improving evidence-based health care for patients through policy making and education. I am developing a Healthcare App about diet and healthy living at the Millenianl Startapp camp in Budapest. I first became involved with Cochrane after I submitted my application for Cochrane’s UK elective. I was selected for a 4 weeks program in Oxford UK. The aim of the Elective was to spread evidence-based practice and disseminate worldwide.
What do you do in Cochrane?
I am a Cochrane Supporter, member of Students for Best Evidence, I was intern at Cochrane UK collaborating for Evidence Blogs and Social media dissemination.
What specifically do you enjoy about working for Cochrane and what have you learnt?
It has been incredible to work with such prepared and wonderful team at the Cochrane UK centre. Every day it is a challenge to find the best evidence and make it simple to understand for everybody. I am constantly working hard to influence health politics using evidence-based research, especially Cochrane reviews.
What are your future plans?
My future plans are to continue to work in the field of Nursing and Public health while combining my passion for evidence-based medicine. I look forward to applying to PhD in public health because I think Nurses need to get more active about his topic as per they are Number one healthcare workforce worldwide.
In your personal experience, what one thing could Cochrane do better to improve its global profile?
If I could change one thing about Cochrane, it would be to increase Cochrane’s voice on social media. Moreover, increase opportunities and professional development activities Nationwide involving Professionals and Patients associations.
What do you hope for Cochrane for the future?
I hope that Cochrane continues to expand its network worldwide by approaching policy makers, local leaders, and associations. Moreover, I am looking forward to writing EHP policy on disease prevention using Cochrane Evidence to inspire young health professionals.
How important is it that young people get involved in Cochrane?
I think it is essential for young people to get involved with Cochrane because the future of health care lies in our hand and we need to improve it by embracing evidence.
Why is this, do you think?
If we want to provide a good future for health care and guarantee UN global health goals, we absolutely need to engage evidence-based practice and Cochrane is the voice we need to hear.
What would your message be to other young people who want to get involved with Cochrane’s work but not sure where to start….?
Be passionate and driven. You can make a difference. Don’t be afraid to approach such a huge NGO. People are open and ready to hear and support. Get involved! Don’t be scared!
