Addressing the reporting of pilot and feasibility trials with a brand new CONSORT extension

The culmination of work that started with a question at a Society for Academic Primary Care conference workshop on pilot and feasibility studies in 2011 has finally come to fruition.
The CONSORT extension to randomized pilot and feasibility trials provides reporting guidelines which should be welcomed with open-arms by any journal wanting to include well-structured reporting of pilot and feasibility trials that are in preparation for a future definitive RCT.
“… should be welcomed with open-arms by any journal wanting to include well-structured reporting of pilot and feasibility trials that are in preparation for a future definitive RCT.”
Previous research (see here, here and here) has shown that pilot and feasibility studies are often of poor quality and not well reported. The new guidelines will help authors to identify the pertinent information to report from their pilot work focusing on feasibility objectives and outcomes, and help to align this work within the wider context of preparing for a future definitive trial.
The 26-item checklist retains some of the standard CONSORT items, but most have been adapted to focus on pilot and feasibility work. Other items have been removed and some new items added. In the publication a template is provided for a CONSORT flowchart for these studies and a separate checklist for the abstract for a randomized pilot or feasibility trial – with worked examples.
Within the journal Pilot and Feasibility Studies we continually strive t...

Source: BioMed Central Blog - October 27, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Gillian Lancaster Tags: Medicine CONSORT Pilot and Feasibility Studies Source Type: blogs