D. Riley: The CARE guidelines

The CARE guidelines – available on both the EQUATOR Network and the CARE-statement website (www.CARE-statement.org) – are reporting guidelines for case reports. They provide a framework for publishing case reports along with a checklist that can be used by authors, editors, and reviewers.

The vision that led to the development of the CARE guidelines was that case reports, if systematically reported, could become evidence rather than interesting anecdotes. We created a consensus-based set of reporting guidelines for case reports to increase the quality of reporting from patient encounters and lead into a systematic data collection effort; both for the publication of case reports, as well as the creation of data registries. Just as the EQUATOR Network has helped facilitate the transformation of reporting within clinical research, we hope that the CARE guidelines will help facilitate the transformation of reporting of data from the point of care. We believe that the integration of results from systematically collected case reports with the results from clinical trials will support new approaches combining prevention and wellness with treatment.

An article about the CARE guideline development was published in seven medical journals in September 2013 – “The CARE Guidelines: Consensus-based Clinical Case
Reporting Guideline Development” (1). The authors were: Joel J. Gagnier, ND, MSc, PhD, United States; Gunver Kienle, Dr med, Germany; Douglas G. Altman, DSc, United Kingdom; David Moher, PhD, Canada; Harold Sox, MD, United States; David Riley, MD, United States; and the CARE Group.  And the website mentioned above – CARE-statement.org – was also launched in September at the same time as a presentation at the 2013 International Peer Review and Biomedical Publication Congress in Chicago sponsored by the BMJ and JAMA.

The CARE guidelines have been endorsed by BMJ Case Reports, the Deutsche Ärzteblatt, Global Advances in Health and Medicine, Headache, the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, the Journal of Dietary Supplements, and the Journal of Medical Case Reports.

For more details about the CARE guidelines, checklist, or endorsement please contact David Riley at driley@gahmllc.com.

Access the CARE guideline full database record for all publications and translations.

(1) Gagnier J, Kienle G, Altman DG, Moher D, Sox H, Riley D, and the CARE Group. The CARE Guidelines: Consensus-based Clinical Case Reporting Guideline Development. Global Adv Health Med.2013;2(5):38-43. DOI:10.7453/gahmj.2013.008.