Last month, on 21-22 May, Cochrane Canada held its 12th Annual Symposium at the Hotel Alma, located on the University of Calgary campus. This year we saw 105 attendees, which soared to 170 on the morning of 21 May from a joint meeting with representatives from the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) Initiative. 

This year's theme was Reaching New Heights, Measuring Success. We had  13 poster abstracts, including 3 student submissions, as well as 31 oral  abstract presentations, and 7 workshops. Topics covered included social media's role in Cochrane Reviews; information sharing with Canada's aging population; and uncertainty in policy decision-making. While the overall tone of the Symposium focused on our core funding issues (read more here), the general consensus of attendees was positive in that Cochrane is a necessity in Canada and something must be done to ensure the presence of the Centre for years to come. 

The 2014 Cochrane Review of the Year was announced during the closing remarks, this year's winner was Dawn Stacey for her review, Decision aids for people facing health treatment or screening decisions. The  2015 Student Poster Award was also announced, awarding David Herrmann for his poster, The Use of Methodological Quality Measures in Clinical Specialties. 

We'd like to offer special thanks to our Regional Site at the University of Calgary, and Dr Roger Thomas. As well, a generous thank you to our sponsors: Knowledge Translations Platform Alberta SPOR Support Unit; Medlior Health Outcomes; and Wiley.