One of the goals of Cochrane Rehabilitation is to strengthen methodology relevant to evidence-based clinical practice.

To address that, we previously published a scoping review listing the methodological issues in research, a study showing the low clinical replicability of randomized controlled trials, two systematic reviews showing the relevant items in reporting guidelines, and a series of articles discussing the main methodological issues identified in the first Cochrane Rehabilitation Methodological Meeting (Paris 2018).

The need to improve the quality of conduct and reporting of research studies in rehabilitation emerged as a relevant task and led to the launch of the Randomized Controlled Trial Rehabilitation Checklists (RCTRACK) project.

The project focuses on producing reporting guidelines for RCTs in rehabilitation research.
After the first kick-off in Kobe 2019, including the first consensus meeting and the selection of the executive and advisory committee, a literature search and synthesis was produced by eight working groups on the following topics: patient selection; blinding; treatment group; control group and co-interventions; attrition, follow-up, and protocol deviation; outcomes; statistical analysis and appropriate randomization; and research questions.

In Orlando before the ISPRM Meeting, on March 3-4, all these papers have been presented and thoroughly discussed. In the last part of the Meeting, the first draft of these guidelines has been produced through consensus. Now these guidelines are being refined and a Delphi process consensus will be started.

The RCTRACK will be an important contribution to the rehabilitation field and will impact several groups of rehabilitation stakeholders worldwide. The main goal is to improve the quality of the evidence produced in rehabilitation research. The RCTRACK also wants to improve the recognition and understanding of rehabilitation within Cochrane and the scientific and medical community at large.