CoCoCare Project

Clinical practice guidelines are a crucial tool for the neurological community, the development of which is one EAN considers as one of its important functions.

In order to sustainably develop high-quality guidelines, EAN recognizes there is a need to build guideline development skills among its members and is very happy to announce the launching of the second year of its very own guideline educational programme – EAN CoCoCare!

Initiated by Prof. Marian Majoie (Maastricht University, Netherlands) as a project application for the Erasmus Grant in 2018, EAN was brought into the project as a part of the Consortium. The CoCoCare Consortium developed a comprehensive programme, which was successfully conducted in 2019 and 2020 in collaboration with EAN. In 2023 EAN took over the programme and the first EAN CoCoCare students will be graduating at the 2024 EAN Congress in Helsinki.

Objectives:

• To teach EAN members how to develop and implement high quality, evidence-based cost-conscious guidelines and;
• To eventually involve more EAN members into EAN guideline development and consequently improve the quality of EAN guidelines

• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
• Developing clinical questions
• GRADE evidence profiles and EtDs
• AGREE II tool
• How to present
• Economic evaluation
• Guideline implementation

• E-Learning
  This is a short independent online preparatoy learning for participants consisting of slides, papers, quizzes, and assignments. Although it typically takes 2 days to complete, participants have 2 months to do so.
• Kick-off Workshop
  This is an in-person orientation and workshop covering the contents of the E-learning phase, which takes place at the EAN Congress 2024. Here, participants will have the opportunity to get to know fellow participants and form working groups for the next phase. This workshop will be done in combination with the EAN Guidelines Workshop in the morning session, where EAN guideline issues will be discussed and CoCoCare participants will have the opportunity to network with senior guideline developers.
• Training on the Job
  At this stage, participants will delve deep into modules designed to cover the skills needed for guideline development, each starting with 1-3 webinars per module, quizzes and practical exercises, and finally ending with a poster for presentation. Our expert trainers will be guiding you and checking your work with every step of the way.
• Poster Presentation
  This is the culmination activity of the course. Here, the participant is to present their work at the EAN Congress 2025 Scientific Theatre and receive feedback from the Trainers.

Throughout the duration of the programme, participants will receive constant guidance and advice from the CoCoCare trainers as well as free access to all CoCoCare learning materials (incl. videos, reading materials, slides, etc.). The value of which, amounting to €2000* per participant, is covered by EAN.

Participants who complete the programme and present a poster at EAN Congress 2025 will receive the following:

• CoCoCare Certificate awarded during the RRFS Assembly at the EAN Congress 2025
• A grant to participate in the EAN Congress (worth €700 including registration and 2 nights of accommodation)
• The opportunity to work with EAN guideline experts
• Public acknowledgment (EANpages)

Participation in all phases is mandatory to graduate from the course! 

*In the event that the participant does not complete the programme, they are liable to return a fraction of the tuition, I.e. €300 (for higher income country participants) and €100 (for lower income country participants). 

1. Please be aware that you must have an active EAN Full or RRFS Membership and be from an EAN member country in order to apply for this activity. Approval of your membership may take up to 10 working days and we advise that you submit your complete membership application at least 3 weeks before the deadline for applications for this activity.
2. RRFS members from Corresponding Institutional Member Countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauretania, Morocco, Nepal, Palestine, Tunisia, Syria)
3. You will need to register with a Medical Supervisor* for this course, who:
   • is the person to whom the resident can go to in their own training clinic if they have questions regarding the medical content of the final research question project to be developed within the course. They have review the medical content of the final project.
   • does not need to supervise the methodological aspects of guideline development.
   • might contribute to the implementation of the research question and of the guideline training in their own clinic. It also gives the resident extra support and exposure in their own clinic and gives them the feeling that what they are doing is really related to their work and is worth doing.
4. The following shall be submitted within the CoCoCare Application Form (see link box, only visible after login). Please have your requirements on-hand before proceeding to the form.
   • CV (including information about any previous guideline courses attended or experiences)
   • Letter of Motivation, including the following questions:
     - Why do you want to participate in this course? What are your goals?
     - How will you make you have time for the programme?
     - How do you plan to make use of your guideline education in the future? Within your department? Within EAN?
     - Other motivations
5. All applications will be reviewed by the EAN Guideline Production Group. The final decision will be communicated in due course.