What is the RHL?
The RHL is The WHO Reproductive Health Library, a resource that takes the best research evidence available and puts this into practical context so that it will be used to improve health outcomes. Started in 1997 the RHL is prepared by an editorial team based in WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research and partner institutions in the countries.

The RHL is available both on CD ROM and Online, and is published in Spanish and English. It is regularly updated with new evidence and additional resources with CDs published annually and the online version updated when anything changes.

There are three steps to getting research evidence into practice:

1. finding the evidence
2. understanding the evidence
3. implementing the new evidence to improve the quality of care

The RHL helps with all of these:

• The RHL has found the evidence for you. It is a collection of the best evidence-based research in reproductive health, including the full text of all relevant Cochrane reviews as well as other assessed articles.
• The RHL guides you through this scientific research evidence. There is a plain language commentary on each Cochrane review as well as editorials by experts, which cover an area of ongoing debate in greater depth. There are also research methodology articles on the science of evaluating healthcare including the Lancet epidemiology series: Randomised Controlled Trials and Treating Individuals.
• The RHL includes many aids to help implement the evidence. Each Cochrane Review in RHL has an additional 'Implications for Practice', which highlights how the findings of the review could be implemented at different levels of care. Then there are videos of evidence based techniques actually being practiced, a unique feature of RHL.
• A complete training programme with powerpoint slides and other resource documents to conduct courses on evidence-based decision-making.

So, if you are interested in using the best evidence to improve reproductive health care, then the RHL is for you.

Background and Funding
The RHL was developed within the World Health Organization's Programme to Map Best Reproductive Health Practices, and is the key tool used to disseminate evidence on the effectiveness of health care interventions within this Programme. The RHL has over 15,000 subscribers worldwide and many more users. Over 20,000 CDROMs in English and another 10,000 in Spanish are distributed each year in low-income countries by WHO. The first Chinese version was published in 2004.

Richer countries purchase the RHL and this income pays for production. This enables either individuals or organizations in low and low-middle income countries to access the RHL for free - either on CDROM or via the Internet.

RHL Contents
The WHO Reproductive Health Library (RHL) takes the best research evidence available and puts this into practical context so that it will be used to improve health outcomes.
The core content contains over 300 articles about evidence-based practices in reproductive health. These articles are arranged in packages under Topics. Each broad topic area contains many packages. Each package usually contains:

1. a plain-language commentary summarizing the evidence
2. the implications for clinical practice of this evidence
3. at least one Cochrane systematic review giving the evidence on this topic

The spectrum of interventions
The practices reviewed in the RHL are classified in a spectrum of effectiveness from what is shown to be harmful to what is definitely beneficial, and those which are somewhere in between. You can see all the practices included in RHL classified along this spectrum of effectiveness in the Effectiveness Tables in the left hand column.

The RHL also includes
Editorials: Expert views on important issues from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to methodology.
Resources: Tools to help implement effective care, including videos demonstrating techniques such as external cephalic version and Caesarean section and
Evidence-based healthcare training: A complete training course on "Making evidence-based decisions in reproductive health" developed by The World Health Organization and the South African Cochrane Centre. A 4-day training course including powerpoint presentations, a participant manual and evaluation toolkit.
Research Methodology: Articles on the science of evaluating healthcare. Including the Lancet epidemiology series: Randomized Controlled Trials and Treating Individuals.

And more....

• a contact list to the RHL regional focal points - the RHL focal points will provide support to the RHL users enabling them to easily obtain information and clarifications in their own languages;
• a directory of funding agencies;
• a directory of non-governmental organizations working in reproductive health and
• WHO papers addressing global burden of reproductive ill-health