Understanding publication standards for evidence-based medicine

Evidence-based medicine was born in the 1980s. Its natural corollary is the need for a critical reading of the results published. The CONSORT statement is a methodological tool that makes it possible to improve the quality of reports of randomized treatment trials and to read and assess the articles about them critically. Most major international journals require use of the CONSORT checklist for the publication of these articles. It is nonetheless little known or used although its usefulness has been regularly demonstrated. We propose a complete translation of the CONSORT statement and the creation of a website (http://eb.medecine.univ-paris5. fr/moodle) for its use, in order to lift the language barrier and facilitate access to it by French-speaking physicians. Use of the CONSORT checklist will help physicians to assess published results critically, with the aim of developing on evidence-based practice. Following CONSORT, other checklists clinical research have been proposed.