Improving the Reporting of Studies Using Routinely Collected Health Data in Physical Therapy

Reporting guidelines have been developed to improve the reporting of research, with the explicit aims that readers of research should understand what was planned, what was done, and what was found. The Strengthening of Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guidelines were created to improve the transparency of reporting of observational studies, such as cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies, and recommend minimum reporting standards for observational studies. However, the unique elements of routinely collected health data highlight the need to develop a new reporting tool as an extension to STROBE. This need has been addressed by the REporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely collected Data (RECORD) initiative. The Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy has decided to endorse the RECORD guidelines for relevant manuscripts and aims to maximize the implementation of, and benefit from, the RECORD guidelines in terms of completeness and transparency of reporting to ultimately help patients undergoing physical therapy.