ACCORD E&E - ACcurate COnsensus Reporting Document (ACCORD) explanation and elaboration: guidance and examples to support reporting consensus methods

Abstract

Background: When research evidence is limited, inconsistent, or absent, healthcare decisions and policies need to be based on consensus amongst interested stakeholders. In these processes, the knowledge, experience, and expertise of health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and the public are systematically collected and synthesised to reach agreed clinical recommendations and/or priorities. However, despite the influence of consensus exercises, the methods used to achieve agreement are often poorly reported. The ACCORD (ACcurate COnsensus Reporting Document) guideline was developed to help report any consensus methods used in biomedical research, regardless of the health field, techniques used, or application. This explanatory document facilitates the use of the ACCORD checklist. Methods and findings: This paper was built collaboratively based on classic and contemporary literature on consensus methods and publications reporting their use. For each ACCORD checklist item, this explanation and elaboration document unpacks the pieces of information that should be reported and provides a rationale on why it is essential to describe them in detail. Furthermore, this document offers a glossary of terms used in consensus exercises to clarify the meaning of common terms used across consensus methods, to promote uniformity, and to support understanding for consumers who read consensus statements, position statements, or clinical practice guidelines. The items are followed by examples of reporting items from the ACCORD guideline, in text, tables and figures.Conclusions: The ACCORD materials – including the reporting guideline and this explanation and elaboration document – can be used by anyone reporting a consensus exercise used in the context of health research. As a reporting guideline, ACCORD helps researchers to be transparent about the materials, resources (both human and financial), and procedures used in their investigations so readers can judge the trustworthiness and applicability of their results/recommendations.

Authors 10

1. Patrícia Logullo corresponding

   University of Oxford

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Oxford

   Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, and EQUATOR Network UK Centre, Oxford, UK

2. Esther J van Zuuren Aachen

   Leiden University · Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Medical Centre , Leiden , The Netherlands

   Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

3. Christopher Winchester

   University of Oxford

   Affiliation as printed

   Green Templeton College , University of Oxford , UK

   Oxford PharmaGenesis , Oxford , UK

   Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, UK

   Oxford PharmaGenesis, Oxford, UK

4. David I Tovey
   Affiliation as printed

   Journal of Clinical Epidemiology , London , UK

   Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, London, UK

5. William T Gattrell
6. Amy I Price

   Dartmouth College · Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice · Stanford Medicine · Stanford University

   Affiliation as printed

   Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice (TDI) , Geisel School of Medicine , Dartmouth College , Hanover , NH , USA, previously at Stanford Anesthesia ,

   Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice (TDI), Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA, previously at Stanford Anesthesia, Informatics and Media Lab,

   Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

7. Niall Harrison
   Affiliation as printed

   OPEN Health Communications , Marlow , UK

   OPEN Health Communications, Marlow, UK

8. Keith Goldman

   AbbVie (United States)

   Affiliation as printed

   Global Medical Affairs , AbbVie , North Chicago , IL , USA

   Global Medical Affairs, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, USA

9. Alison Chisholm
   Affiliation as printed

   Oxford PharmaGenesis , Oxford , UK

   Oxford PharmaGenesis, Oxford, UK

10. Paul Blazey

    University of British Columbia · Stanford Medicine · Stanford University

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Medicine , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , Canada

    Informatics and Media Lab , Stanford University School of Medicine , Stanford , CA , USA

    Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada