Reporting Conflicts of Interest and Funding in Health Care Guidelines: The RIGHT-COI&F Checklist
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Abstract
Background:
Conflicts of interest (COIs) of contributors to a guideline project and the funding of that project can influence the development of the guideline. Comprehensive reporting of information on COIs and funding is essential for the transparency and credibility of guidelines.
Objective:
To develop an extension of the Reporting Items for practice Guidelines in HealThcare (RIGHT) statement for the reporting of COIs and funding in policy documents of guideline organizations and in guidelines: the RIGHT-COI&F checklist.
Design:
The recommendations of the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) network were followed. The process consisted of registration of the project and setting up working groups, generation of the initial list of items, achieving consensus on the items, and formulating and testing the final checklist.
Setting:
International collaboration.
Participants:
44 experts.
Measurements:
Consensus on checklist items.
Results:
The checklist contains 27 items: 18 about the COIs of contributors and 9 about the funding of the guideline project. Of the 27 items, 16 are labeled as policy related because they address the reporting of COI and funding policies that apply across an organization’s guideline projects. These items should be described ideally in the organization’s policy documents, otherwise in the specific guideline. The remaining 11 items are labeled as implementation related and they address the reporting of COIs and funding of the specific guideline.
Limitation:
The RIGHT-COI&F checklist requires testing in real-life use.
Conclusion:
The RIGHT-COI&F checklist can be used to guide the reporting of COIs and funding in guideline development and to assess the completeness of reporting in published guidelines and policy documents.
Primary Funding Source:
The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.
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Supplemental Material
Supplementary Figures and the List of Working Group Members
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Comments and Median Scores From the Expert Panel With Responses and Suggested Revisions
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Summary of Feedback Given During the Consensus Meetings With Responses From the Coordination Team
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The Extension of the RIGHT Statement for Reporting Conflicts of Interest and Funding in Practice Guidelines: Explanation and Elaboration
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Published In
Annals of Internal Medicine
Volume 177 • Number 6 • June 2024
Pages: 782 - 790
History
Published online: 14 May 2024
Published in issue: June 2024
Keywords
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© 2024 American College of Physicians.
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Reporting Conflicts of Interest and Funding in Health Care Guidelines: The RIGHT-COI&F Checklist. Ann Intern Med.2024;177:782-790. [Epub 14 May 2024]. doi:10.7326/M23-3274
Reporting Conflicts of Interest and Funding in Health Care Guidelines: The RIGHT-COI&F Checklist. Ann Intern Med.2024;177:782-790. [Epub 14 May 2024]. doi:10.7326/M23-3274
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