The Ministry of Health provide all New Zealanders with free access to The Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library is one of the few resources on healthcare interventions that is independently funded and is evidenced based. This allows objective assessment of many healthcare treatments available today. This includes many complimentary and alternative therapies such as Chinese herbal medicines, acupuncture, music therapies etc.
Consumers also play a large role within the collaboration in the generation and promotion of systematic reviews. Every systematic review that is produced is read and commented on by an interested consumer. This makes sure that the reviews address the particular concerns of consumers as well as making sure the language used is understandable for the educated consumer. All reviews also contain a plain language summary. These summaries are always critiqued and often written by consumers. Consumers wishing to participate within the collaboration are encouraged to contact the consumer network