Facilitating Prospective Registration of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies: A STARD Initiative

OBTAIN ADDITIONAL STUDY INFORMATION Reports of diagnostic accuracy studies are often incomplete in their description of essential study design features, making it difficult for readers to assess the risk of bias and the applicability of the study findings (23, 24). The format of ClinicalTrials.gov is slightly different, although there is a major overlap between items that need to be registered here as well. Because many items on WHO's Trial Registration Data Set apply to any type ofresearch involving humans, there should be no barriers to registration of diagnostic accuracy studies. The inclusion of these items was decided based on discussion by the authors of this manuscript, consisting of 5 trial registry representatives (LMA, HF, KEH, HL, LH), 3 current or former editors-in-chief of journals that publish diagnostic accuracy studies (VB, DM, NR), and 5 persons with broad experience in performing diagnostic accuracy studies and systematic reviews thereof (DAK, JFC, CAG, MDM, PMB). A substantial increase in the number of clinical trials registrations was observed after the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors implemented its clinical trial registration policy (5).