Background

Structured, systematic methods to formulate consensus recommendations, such as the Delphi process or nominal group technique, among others, provide the opportunity to harness the knowledge of experts to support clinical decision making in areas of uncertainty. They are widely used in biomedical research, in particular where disease characteristics or resource limitations mean that high-quality evidence generation is difficult. However, poor reporting of methods used to reach a consensus – for example, not clearly explaining the definition of consensus, or not stating how consensus group panellists were selected – can potentially undermine confidence in this type of research and hinder reproducibility. Our objective is therefore to systematically develop a reporting guideline to help the biomedical research and clinical practice community describe the methods or techniques used to reach consensus in a complete, transparent, and consistent manner.

Methods

The ACCORD (ACcurate COnsensus Reporting Document) project will take place in five stages and follow the EQUATOR Network guidance for the development of reporting guidelines. In Stage 1, a multidisciplinary Steering Committee has been established to lead and coordinate the guideline development process. In Stage 2, a systematic literature review will identify evidence on the quality of the reporting of consensus methodology, to obtain potential items for a reporting checklist. In Stage 3, Delphi methodology will be used to reach consensus regarding the checklist items, first among the Steering Committee, and then among a broader Delphi panel comprising participants with a range of expertise, including patient representatives. In Stage 4, the reporting guideline will be finalised in a consensus meeting, along with the production of an Explanation and Elaboration (E&E) document. In Stage 5, we plan to publish the reporting guideline and E&E document in open-access journals, supported by presentations at appropriate events. Dissemination of the reporting guideline, including a website linked to social media channels, is crucial for the document to be implemented in practice.

Discussion

The ACCORD reporting guideline will provide a set of minimum items that should be reported about methods used to achieve consensus, including approaches ranging from simple unstructured opinion gatherings to highly structured processes.

中文翻译：

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报告生物医学研究和临床实践中基于共识的方法的 ACCORD 指南：研究方案

背景

制定共识建议的结构化、系统化方法，例如德尔菲过程或名义组技术等，提供了利用专家知识支持不确定领域临床决策的机会。它们广泛用于生物医学研究，特别是在疾病特征或资源限制意味着难以生成高质量证据的情况下。然而，用于达成共识的方法报告不佳——例如，没有清楚地解释共识的定义，或没有说明如何选择共识小组成员——可能会破坏对这类研究的信心并阻碍可重复性。

方法

ACCORD（准确的共识报告文件）项目将分五个阶段进行，并遵循 EQUATOR Network 指南制定报告指南。在第一阶段，建立了一个多学科指导委员会来领导和协调指南制定过​​程。在第 2 阶段，系统的文献回顾将确定关于共识方法报告质量的证据，以获得报告清单的潜在项目。在第 3 阶段，德尔福方法将用于就清单项目达成共识，首先是在指导委员会中，然后在由具有一系列专业知识的参与者（包括患者代表）组成的更广泛的德尔福小组中。在第 4 阶段，报告指南将在共识会议上最终确定，以及制作说明和详细说明 (E&E) 文件。在第 5 阶段，我们计划在开放获取期刊上发布报告指南和 E&E 文件，并在适当的活动中进行演示。传播报告指南，包括链接到社交媒体渠道的网站，对于该文件在实践中的实施至关重要。

讨论

ACCORD 报告指南将提供一组应报告的关于达成共识的方法的最少项目，包括从简单的非结构化意见收集到高度结构化的流程的方法。