Introduction Cochrane is a global scientific network that produces evidence on the effectiveness of all manner of interventions to improve health. The organisation also promotes the use of this evidence in decision making both at the personal as well as the population level. Over the past few years Cochrane has developed a Knowledge Translation (KT) strategy to better ensure that the evidence it produces has real effects in real life by making people healthier and safer. One exciting and constantly growing area in KT is visualisation because pictures grab people’s attention and they are easy to share via social media.

Methods Using an open, iterative, trial-and-error approach, we have developed a decision tree (a particular kind of flowchart) to help anyone interested in turning Cochrane review results – published as text, numbers and statistical graphs – into more easily understandable visual formats.

Result The decision tree will be publically available in all its development versions via www.visuallycochrane.net.

Discussion Visualisations of Cochrane review results can range from the relatively simple form of adding a photograph to a tweet at one end of the spectrum to the production of sizeable infographics or even videos at the other. There are factors inherent to the obtained review results, such as direction and magnitude of effect and the quality of the evidence, as well the general context within which they apply that can be operationalized into a rough algorithm. Even though the tool is developed especially with Cochrane reviews in mind, there is no reason to assume it would not apply equally to other kinds of research findings and their dissemination within the OHS realm. The tool will be presented in Dublin in its current form to elicit feedback to develop it further.