The CONSORT statement: will it lead to improved reporting of clinical trials in ophthalmology? Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials.

Abstract

JAMA Beyond CONSORT: Need for Improved Reporting Standards for Clinical Trials Curtis L. Meinert, PhD. The increasing use of trials as vehicles for choosing among treatments has fueled drives for standardizing the way trials are reported. These drives have been propelled by editors, frustrated readers, and meta-analysts desiring the same basic information and counts. There is no doubt that all of these groups would benefit from better reporting of trials and by analyses subsumed under the headinganalysis by treatment assignmentoranalysis by intention to treat. To that end, there are reasons to applaud the efforts of biomedical journals to support the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. Content suggestions and checklists are useful in preparing reports of trials. Hence, the CONSORT checklist is useful. A worthwhile addition to the list would be an item on treatment effects monitoring, since monitoring is part and parcel of most randomized trials. Reprints:Curtis L. Meinert, PhD, Johns Hopkins University Center for Clinical Trials, 615 N Wolfe St, Room 5010, Baltimore, MD 21305 (e-mail:cmeinert@jhoph.edu). Arch Ophthalmol 1999;117:677-680