The work of The Cochrane Collaboration revolves around 53 Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs), responsible for preparing and maintaining reviews within specific areas of health care. The members of these groups include researchers, healthcare professionals and people using healthcare services (consumers), all of whom share a common enthusiasm for generating reliable, up-to-date evidence relevant to the prevention and treatment of specific health problems or groups of problems.
Cochrane Review Groups are supported in review preparation by Methods Groups, Centres and Fields. Cochrane Methods Groups provide a forum for methodologists to discuss development, evaluation and application of methods used to prepare Cochrane reviews. They play a major role in the production of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (the Handbook) and, where appropriate, chapters contain information about the relevant Methods Group. Cochrane Centres are located in different countries and together they represent all regions and provide training and support for review authors and CRGs in addition to advocacy and promotion of access to Cochrane reviews. Cochrane Fields focus on broad dimensions of health care, such as the setting of care (e.g. primary care), the type of consumer (e.g. children), or the type of intervention (e.g. vaccines). People associated with Fields help to ensure that priorities and perspectives in their sphere of interest are reflected in the work of CRGs.