Yaolong Chen, PhD, MMed; Kehu Yang, MMed *; Ana Marušić, MD, PhD; Amir Qaseem, MD, PhD, MHA; Joerg J. Meerpohl, MD; Signe Flottorp, MD, PhD; Elie A. Akl, MD, MPH, PhD; Holger J. Schünemann, MD, PhD; Edwin S.Y. Chan, PhD; Yngve Falck-Ytter, MD; Faruque Ahmed, PhD; Sarah Barber, PhD; Chiehfeng Chen, MD, MPH, PhD; Mingming Zhang, MSc; Bin Xu, MD; Jinhui Tian, PhD; Fujian Song, PhD; Hongcai Shang, MD, PhD; Kun Tang, PhD; Qi Wang, MMed; Susan L. Norris, MD, MPH, MSc *; for the RIGHT (Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare) Working Group †
Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Acknowledgment: The authors thank the persons who responded to the Delphi survey for their thoughtful comments.
Grant Support: By National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 81503459; Dr. Chen), China Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant 2016LZU-JBZX159; Dr. Chen and Prof. Yang), the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Evidence-Based Medicine and Knowledge Translation of Gansu Province (grant EBM1305 for the RIGHT project), and Croatian Science Foundation (grant IP-2014-09-7672; Dr. Marušić).
Disclosures: Dr. Meerpohl is a member of the GRADE Working Group and a member of the GRADE guidance committee. Dr. Flottorp is a member of the GRADE Working Group and the GRADE guidance committee. Dr. Akl is a member of the GRADE Working Group. Dr. Schünemann is the co-chair of the GRADE Working Group and the lead author of the Guidelines International Network–McMaster Guideline Development Checklist. Dr. Chan reports other part-time salary support from the Singapore Ministry of Health outside the submitted work. Dr. Falck-Ytter is a member of the GRADE Working Group. Authors not named here have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Disclosures can also be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M16-1565.
Editors' Disclosures: Christine Laine, MD, MPH, Editor in Chief, reports that she has no financial relationships or interests to disclose. Darren B. Taichman, MD, PhD, Executive Deputy Editor, reports that he has no financial relationships or interests to disclose. Cynthia D. Mulrow, MD, MSc, Senior Deputy Editor, reports that she has no relationships or interests to disclose. Deborah Cotton, MD, MPH, Deputy Editor, reports that she has no financial relationships or interest to disclose. Jaya K. Rao, MD, MHS, Deputy Editor, reports that she has stock holdings/options in Eli Lilly and Pfizer. Sankey V. Williams, MD, Deputy Editor, reports that he has no financial relationships or interests to disclose. Catharine B. Stack, PhD, MS, Deputy Editor for Statistics, reports that she has stock holdings in Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
Requests for Single Reprints: Yaolong Chen, PhD, MMed, Lanzhou University, Donggang West Road, Chengguan District, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China; e-mail, chenyaolong@lzu.edu.cn.
Current Author Addresses: Drs. Y. Chen and Tian, Prof. Yang, and Ms. Wang: 199 Donggang West Road, Chengguan District, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China.
Dr. Marušić: Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, University of Split School of Medicine, Soltanska 2, 21000 Split, Croatia.
Dr. Qaseem: American College of Physicians, 190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106-1572.
Dr. Meerpohl: Paris–Sorbonne University, 1 Rue Victor Cousin, 75230 Paris cedex 05, France.
Dr. Flottorp: Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404, Nydalen, N-0403 Oslo, Norway.
Dr. Akl: Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, PO Box 11-0236, Riad-El-Solh, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.
Dr. Schünemann: Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, McMaster University Health Sciences Centre, Room 2C161280, Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada.
Dr. Chan: Singapore Clinical Research Institute, 31 Biopolis Way, Nanos 02-01, Singapore 138669.
Dr. Falck-Ytter: Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 10701 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106.
Dr. Ahmed: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road Northeast, Mailstop E-03, Atlanta, GA 30329.
Dr. Barber: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Room 303, Cité du Djoué, PO Box 06, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
Dr. C. Chen: Taipei Medical University–School of Medicine, 250 Wuxing Street, Taipei 11031, Taiwan.
Ms. Zhang: Chinese Evidence-Based Medicine Centre, West China Hospital, 37 Guoxue Xiang, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China.
Dr. Xu: Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, 43 Box, 138 Xianlin Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China.
Dr. Song: Department of Population Health and Primary Care, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom.
Dr. Shang: Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Dongcheng District, 5 Hai Yun Cang, Beijing 100700, China.
Dr. Tang: Peking University Health Science Center, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, China.
Dr. Norris: World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, CH-1211, Geneva 27, Switzerland.
Author Contributions: Conception and design: Y. Chen, K. Yang, A. Qaseem, M. Zhang, B. Xu, Q. Wang, S.L. Norris.
Analysis and interpretation of the data: Y. Chen, K. Yang, J.J. Meerpohl, S. Flottorp, H.J. Schünemann, S. Barber, S.L. Norris.
Drafting of the article: Y. Chen, K. Yang, A. Qaseem, J.J. Meerpohl, E.S.Y. Chan, F. Ahmed, S.L. Norris.
Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: Y. Chen, K. Yang, A. Marušić, A. Qaseem, J.J. Meerpohl, S. Flottorp, E.A. Akl, H.J. Schünemann, E.S.Y. Chan, Y. Falck-Ytter, F. Ahmed, S. Barber, C. Chen, M. Zhang, F. Song, S.L. Norris.
Final approval of the article: Y. Chen, K. Yang, A. Marušić, A. Qaseem, J.J. Meerpohl, S. Flottorp, E.A. Akl, H.J. Schünemann, E.S.Y. Chan, Y. Falck-Ytter, F. Ahmed, S. Barber, J. Tian, F. Song, K. Tang, Q. Wang, S.L. Norris.
Obtaining of funding: Y. Chen, K. Yang.
Administrative, technical, or logistic support: Y. Chen, K. Yang, H. Shang, K. Tang, S.L. Norris.
Collection and assembly of data: Y. Chen, K. Yang, A. Marušić, E.A. Akl, E.S.Y. Chan, Y. Falck-Ytter, F. Ahmed, C. Chen, J. Tian, Q. Wang, S.L. Norris.
The quality of reporting practice guidelines is often poor, and there is no widely accepted guidance or standards for such reporting in health care. The international RIGHT (Reporting Items for practice Guidelines in HealThcare) Working Group was established to address this gap. The group followed an existing framework for developing guidelines for health research reporting and the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network approach. It developed a checklist and an explanation and elaboration statement. The RIGHT checklist includes 22 items that are considered essential for good reporting of practice guidelines: basic information (items 1 to 4), background (items 5 to 9), evidence (items 10 to 12), recommendations (items 13 to 15), review and quality assurance (items 16 and 17), funding and declaration and management of interests (items 18 and 19), and other information (items 20 to 22). The RIGHT checklist can assist developers in reporting guidelines, support journal editors and peer reviewers when considering guideline reports, and help health care practitioners understand and implement a guideline.
Chen Y, Yang K, Marušić A, Qaseem A, Meerpohl JJ, Flottorp S, et al. A Reporting Tool for Practice Guidelines in Health Care: The RIGHT Statement. Ann Intern Med. ;166:128–132. doi: 10.7326/M16-1565
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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2017;166(2):128-132.
DOI: 10.7326/M16-1565
Published at www.annals.org on 22 November 2016
Research and Reporting Methods.