Sanyal co-authors reporting guidelines for precision medicine research of clinical relevance
BePRECISE Consortium Unveils Guidelines to Enhance Reporting in Precision Medicine Research
The inaugural reporting guidelines for precision medicine research describe comprehensive guidelines aimed at improving the accuracy, safety, and health equity in precision medicine.
Published in Nature Medicine, the paper comes from the BePRECISE (Better Precision-data Reporting of Evidence from Clinical Intervention Studies & Epidemiology) consortium.
“Precision medicine seeks to tailor healthcare to individual characteristics, accounting for the heterogeneous nature of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers, mental health disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, and infectious diseases” says Paul Franks, Ph.D., of Lund University in Sweden, chair of the guidelines committee. “However, this heterogeneity, combined with varied research methodologies, has created challenges in comparing studies and implementing findings across the field.”
The director of the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health, Arun Sanyal, M.D., was the lone hepatologist among the paper’s co-authors.
“This work sets the standards for reporting of Precision Medicine studies related to metabolic health and associated disorders,” he said. “It sets the stage for acceleration of high-quality data generation to make precision approaches a reality in the care of patients with metabolic end organ diseases.”
So far, there have been no standardized guidelines for reporting precision medicine research, hindering progress. Addressing this gap, the BePRECISE consortium, comprising 23 global experts in precision medicine, cardiometabolic diseases, statistics, editorial, and lived experience, conducted a scoping review of evidence and engaged in a modified Delphi and nominal group technique process to create the new reporting guidelines.
The resulting BePRECISE Checklist includes 23 items organized into five sections corresponding to typical sections of a scientific publication. A dedicated section on health equity emphasizes the importance of including underrepresented and underserved communities in precision medicine research, as well as patient and public involvement and engagement.
The BePRECISE consortium encourages adoption of these guidelines by researchers, reviewers, funders and editors to promote and expedite the equitable clinical implementation of precision medicine. The checklist is expected to enhance the quality and comparability of precision medicine studies, fostering advancements in healthcare for all.
For more information about the BePRECISE guidelines and to access the checklist, please visit www.be-precise.org.