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- RIGHT-COI&F guides transparent reporting of COIs and funding in healthcare guidelines and policy documents of guideline organisations.<\/li>\n
- The checklist can also be used to assess the quality and completeness of reporting in published guidelines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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<\/p>\nHealthcare guidelines substantially influence clinical practice and policy and are developed through extensive analysis and decision-making. Amid broader issues with accurate disclosure<\/a> in medical publishing, a recent Annals of Internal Medicine<\/em> article<\/a> by Yangqin Xun and colleagues highlighted that while guidelines are especially sensitive to conflicts of interest (COIs) and funder influence, disclosure is generally poor.<\/p>\n
Clear and complete reporting of COIs and funding is crucial for credibility and is monitored as a key open science indicator<\/a>. Yet existing checklists, such as Reporting Items for practice Guidelines in HealThcare (RIGHT)<\/a>, often lack detail on how to report COIs and funding. Xun et al. aimed to address this, building on RIGHT to develop a COI- and funding-specific extension. RIGHT-COI&F can be used both while developing healthcare guidelines and to assess completeness of COI and funding reporting.<\/p>\n
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RIGHT-COI&F can be used both while developing healthcare guidelines and to assess completeness of COI and funding reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Checklist development<\/strong><\/p>\n
RIGHT-COI&F development followed the recommendations of the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) Network<\/a>, based on a published protocol<\/a>. Key steps were:<\/p>\n
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- establishing working groups, including an expert panel<\/li>\n
- generating an initial checklist based on existing materials and a stakeholder survey<\/li>\n
- agreeing checklist items through surveying experts and consensus meetings<\/li>\n
- refining and testing the checklist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
RIGHT-COI&F items: policy and implementation<\/strong><\/p>\n
RIGHT-COI&F has 27 items, 18 focused on COIs and 9 on funding. Most items are related to policy and include:<\/p>\n
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- defining the types of interest to be disclosed (eg, based on relevance, financial amount, or time period) and by whom<\/li>\n
- how accuracy and completeness is verified<\/li>\n
- processes for determining whether interests are conflicts<\/li>\n
- strategies to manage COIs<\/li>\n
- whether accepting funding from certain sources is restricted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Organisational policies may fulfil these items, alleviating the need for detailed descriptions in individual guidelines.<\/p>\n
The remaining items relate to implementation in individual projects, such as ensuring that declared interests are reported in detail, alongside the funding received (and the role of funders).<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/strong><\/p>\n
To promote adoption, the authors plan to translate RIGHT-COI&F into multiple languages, disseminate it through academic networks, and seek endorsement by medical journals. Further assessment of real-life feasibility and impact is planned. We look forward to seeing how RIGHT-COI&F helps uphold transparency and trust in the healthcare space.<\/p>\n
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