GRADE: what is “quality of evidence” and why is it important to clinicians?

Guideline developers use a bewildering variety of systems to rate the quality of the evidence underlying their recommendations. Some are facile, some confused, and others sophisticated but complex. In 2004 the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group presented its initial proposal for patient management. In this second of a series of five articles focusing on the GRADE approach to developing and presenting recommendations the authors show how GRADE has built on previous systems to create a highly structured, transparent, and informative system for rating quality of evidence. Article from the BMJ, Volume 336, 3 May 2008. Source: http://www.bmj.com/content/336/7651/995.full.pdf