Contact, Help, Advice and Information Networks (CHAIN) is a network designed to facilitate links between health care professionals, specialists, researchers, educators, managers, librarians and other professionals.

CHAIN is a successful network in the United Kingdom National Health Service programme and is also available in Canada through the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group (EPOC).

CHAIN was established in response to a demand for information about 'who is doing what' in evidence based health care and knowlege transfer.

How CHAIN works

CHAINs are free to join. As a CHAIN member, you can use the network in many ways including:

• Searching the online directories in order to contact other members directly
• Finding out about forthcoming events, conferences and research funding opportunities through messages targeted by the CHAIN facilitator
• Requesting information from groups of CHAIN members, or publicise your own event
• Downloading resources from CHAIN events

Current CHAINs

CHAIN 1 focuses on research and evidence-based practice; CHAIN 2 is for people interested in widening participation in learning; CHAIN 3 is a community interested in innovation and improvement, and CHAIN 4 is for people involved in cancer care.

Members have access to the directories of all CHAINs, not only the one(s) they have joined. This enables networking to occur across as well as within individual CHAINs. More CHAINs will be introduced in future, based on the same principles, but focusing on other fields of interest.