Experts establish checklist detailing key consensus reporting items for primary care studies

In an effort to fill the need for primary care–focused guidelines, an international group of top researchers has developed the Consensus Reporting Items for Studies in Primary Care (CRISP) Checklist, which outlines 24 items that describe the research team, patients, study participants, health conditions, clinical encounters, care teams, interventions, study measures, settings of care, and implementation of findings and results in primary care.

The CRISP Working Group conducted a scoping review of literature on the state of primary care research reporting as well as several rounds of online surveys to assess the needs of a broad range of primary care researchers, practitioners, journal editors, and patients and other lay research users worldwide. At each stage, the group refined the options for potential reporting items based on survey participants' responses, thereby moving toward a consensus CRISP Checklist.

The paper is published in The Annals of Family Medicine journal.

Pilot testing of the checklist with a small group of participants across primary care constituencies yielded largely positive feedback. The CRISP Working Group considers the checklist to be a living document that will evolve as more people promote and use it. To that end, they welcome feedback through the CRISP website at www.crisp-pc.org. The CRISP Checklist appears in the article, and an Explanation & Example report further elaborating on the checklist items is included as an appendix.

There are more than 500 medical research reporting guidelines currently recognized by researchers and research journals across the spectrum of medical fields. Although primary care researchers may use some of them as they relate to their particular topics or methods, no published guidelines address primary care's unique perspectives, approaches, and research concerns.

The newly established Consensus Reporting Items for Studies in Primary Care (CRISP) Checklist outlines items that describe the various aspects of research, from the team, patients and study participants to the implementation of study findings and results in primary care.