The CARE guidelines: Consensus-based clinical case reporting guideline development

Joel J. Gagnier, Gunver Kienle, Douglas G. Altman, David Moher, Harold Sox, David Riley, the CARE Group, Michael Kidd

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    737 Citations (Scopus)
    35 Downloads (Pure)

    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.

    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.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1541-1547
    Number of pages7
    JournalHEADACHE
    Volume53
    Issue number10
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 23 Nov 2013

    Keywords

    • case report
    • case study
    • EQUATOR Network
    • health research reporting guideline
    • meaningful use
    • patient report

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The CARE guidelines: Consensus-based clinical case reporting guideline development'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this