Reporting and appraisal

Below are tools and resources for assessing the quality of guidelines and the quality of the guidelines reporting:

Tool/resource
 Explanation  Access
AGREE II

The most widely used tool to assess the quality of the guidelines consists of 23 items that evaluate the following domains: scope and purpose, stakeholder participation, rigor of development, clarity of presentation, applicability and editorial independence. The tool has been translated to 20 languages.

The English version can be accessed here. It provides step by step guidance for users.

The website of the AGREE collaboration provides more information, tools and resources useful for developers and users. 
Other AGREE tools

The AGREE collaboration has created additional tools to support guideline developers and users. A recent publication provides guidance on how to use them. Below is a summary of these tools and their uses:

  • AGREE-REX: New tool for assessing the quality of CPGs recommendations. It can be used to assess separate recommendations (rather than the whole CPGs) and complement the AGREE II tool.
  • AGREE GRS: The AGREE Global Rating Scale is an abridged version of the AGREE II. It comprises four core items and three overall quality items. It is useful when time and resources are limited as an alternative to AGREE II.
  • AGREE-HS: A recently developed tool designed to evaluation the quality of health systems guidance (HSG) documents, and provides a blueprint for HSG documents development and reporting.
  • CheckUp is a checklist developed to evaluate the completeness of reporting in updated guidelines and as a tool to inform guideline developers about reporting requirements.

AGREE-REX can be accessed here.

AGREE-GRS can be accessed here.

AGREE-HS can be accessed here.

CheckUp can be accessed here.
RIGHT
 RIGHT (Essential Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare), is a checklist-based set of reporting standards for healthcare practice guidelines. 
 More information about the RIGHT statement can be found here.
Other RIGHT resources
 The RIGHT statement working group has published public versions of guidelines, adapted guidelines, and others. These advances can be followed here.
iCAHE Rapid Guideline Appraisal Tool A rapid and easy-to-use guideline appraisal tool. Excellent for use by busy clinicians. 
 More information on the iCAHE tools can be found here.
CHEERS
 The Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) for reporting HTAs.

Paper can be found here.

Tool via the equator-network.org can be found here.

Related work by Watts (2018) describing how checklists can be used in systematic reviews of HTA.
INAHTA – Quality checklist on reporting
 The INAHTA Checklist is an aid to furthering a consistent and transparent approach to HTA. Available in different languages.
 Checklist available here.