TaskExchange: online collaboration in evidence synthesis

Session: 

Oral session: Innovative solutions to challenges of evidence production (1)

Date: 

Sunday 16 September 2018 - 15:10 to 15:20

Location: 

Fintry Auditorium

All authors in correct order:

Turner T1, Steele E1, Mavergames C2, Elliott J1
1 Cochrane Australia, Australia
2 Cochrane Central Executive, Germany
Presenting author and contact person

Presenting author:

Tari Turner

Contact person:

Tari Turner
Abstract text
Background:
Efficient, useful evidence synthesis relies on collaborations of people with the right skills, experience and availability completing a wide range of tasks at just the right time. TaskExchange (taskexchange.cochrane.org) is an online platform that supports collaboration across all the members of the evidence community including consumers, systematic reviewers, guideline developers and decision-makers. The aim of TaskExchange is to bring together people who need help with evidence synthesis tasks with people who have the time and skills to help; facilitating collaborative production of high quality, relevant, up-to-date evidence.

Objectives:
This paper describes the development, growth and future plans for TaskExchange, an online platform facilitating collaboration in health evidence synthesis.

Methods:
TaskExchange was initially developed as part of Cochrane’s Project Transform. The Guidelines International Network is also a partner in TaskExchange enabling TaskExchange to cover both guideline and systematic review related tasks. TaskExchange is an openly accessible online platform. Users sign in and create a profile, browse or search for relevant tasks, respond to tasks or post new tasks.

Results:
As of February 2018 TaskExchange has almost 500 tasks and is approaching 2000 users, with a task response rate of more than 75%. Consumer review tasks are in our top three task types, along with translation and data extraction tasks.

Conclusions:
By bringing together the global evidence synthesis community, including consumers, systematic reviewers, guideline developers and decision-makers and enabling effective collaboration, TaskExchange has the potential to enable efficient production of high quality, relevant, up-to-date evidence.

Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Consumers are key contributors to TaskExchange but were not involved in the drafting of this abstract.

Relevance to patients and consumers: 

Providing new pathways for consumers and other to engage meaningfully with Cochrane’s work is vital. TaskExchange is an online, open access platform developed by Cochrane that provides easy entry into evidence synthesis work for the entire evidence synthesis community, including consumers, newcomers to evidence synthesis, reviewers, methodologists and others.