Complying with STARD is likely to improve the quality of reporting

Education and debate p 41

As a clinician, I need high quality evidence about the usefulness, precision, and accuracy of diagnostic tests, and I need it now. Such evidence is rare even for the clinical examination, the most critical component of the diagnostic process. 1 2 The situation is getting worse with the exponential increase of diagnostic tests, most of which have never been evaluated properly and can mislead the diagnostic process. Although rigorous methodological standards in research about diagnostic tests have been applied more rigorously in the past decade, their reporting and methodological quality remain inadequate.2–5 Against this background, the proposal in this issue from the authors of Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) for reporting diagnostic research should be applauded (p …