The CARE guidelines: consensus-based clinical case report guideline development

Abstract Background A case report is a narrative that describes, for medical, scientific, or educational purposes, a medical problem experienced by one or more patients. Case reports written without guidance from reporting standards are insufficiently rigorous to guide clinical practice or to inform...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical epidemiology 2014, Vol.67 (1), p.46-51
Main Authors: Gagnier, Joel J, Kienle, Gunver, Altman, Douglas G, Moher, David, Sox, Harold, Riley, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis. Health state
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical Research
Case report
Case study
Checklist
Clinical medicine
Consensus
Epidemiology
EQUATOR network
Family medical history
General aspects
Guidelines as Topic
Health research reporting guidelines
Humans
Indexing in process
Internal Medicine
Intervention
Interviews
Literature reviews
Meaningful use
Medical research
Medical sciences
Medicine
Meetings
Methodology
Methods
Patient reports
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Research Report - standards
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Summary:Abstract Background A case report is a narrative that describes, for medical, scientific, or educational purposes, a medical problem experienced by one or more patients. Case reports written without guidance from reporting standards are insufficiently rigorous to guide clinical practice or to inform clinical study design. Primary Objective Develop, disseminate, and implement systematic reporting guidelines for case reports. Methods We used a three-phase consensus process consisting of (1) pre-meeting literature review and interviews to generate items for the reporting guidelines, (2) a face-to-face consensus meeting to draft the reporting guidelines, and (3) post-meeting feedback, review, and pilot testing, followed by finalization of the case report guidelines. Results This consensus process involved 27 participants and resulted in a 13-item checklist—a reporting guideline for case reports. The primary items of the checklist are title, key words, abstract, introduction, patient information, clinical findings, timeline, diagnostic assessment, therapeutic interventions, follow-up and outcomes, discussion, patient perspective, and informed consent. Conclusions We believe the implementation of the CARE (CAse REport) guidelines by medical journals will improve the completeness and transparency of published case reports and that the systematic aggregation of information from case reports will inform clinical study design, provide early signals of effectiveness and harms, and improve healthcare delivery.
ISSN:0895-4356
1878-5921
DOI:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2013.08.003