About us

During the past two decades, the resources from which people seek health information have undergone dramatic changes. This is mainly due to technological advancement and internet usage increase. Health information and health claims presented by online sources influence people's health decisions and health status. In this situation, having a reliable source for health claims evaluation is vital to building a strong knowledge foundation. It is more crucial for non-English speakers who have access to fewer health information resources.

Cochrane Iran, in line with Cochrane's goal to enhance healthcare knowledge and decision-making for all, decided to provide a reliable source of evidence in the Persian language to evaluate health claims in social media and on internet websites. On this online platform, named BARPAYE ("based on"), readers can write and submit their questions about health information they hear in the media, in ads, or have found online via the website in the Persian language. They can also ask for a scientific evaluation of the health claim. The main approach to providing evidence on this platform is conducting rapid reviews of the available review studies. This is done by presenting the findings in a plain-language summary in Persian. A full report of reviews will also be available for interested readers.

BARPAYE is designed to make scientific information available to everyone and help make well- informed decisions by the public, patients, service providers, and health policymakers. It is inspired by medizin-transparent, a platform developed by Cochrane Austria and the Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation in Danube University Krems (Universität für Weiterbildung Krems); medizin-transparent.at.

Some of the contents in the website is translated from other websites outlined below. We are grateful for the permission to translate. The original contents of translations are cited in the reports.

Evidently Cochrane, Cochrane UK; https://www.evidentlycochrane.net/

iHealth facts, developed by the Health Research Board-Trials Methodology Research Network (HRB-TMRN), Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland, based in the University of Galway, Ireland; https://ihealthfacts.ie/