GRADE: assessing the quality of evidence for diagnostic recommendations

Making a diagnosis is the bread and butter of clinical practice, but in light of the number of tests now available to clinician, diagnosing illness has become a complicated process. Guidelines for making an evidence-based diagnosis abound, but those making recommendations about diagnostic tests or test strategies must realize that clinicians require support to make diagnostic decisions that they can easily implement in daily practice. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group has developed a rigorous, transparent, and increasingly adopted approach for grading the quality of research evidence and strength of recommendations to guide clinical practice. ...