Red Hat Group

The Red Hat Group (RHG) was formed at the COMET VII meeting in Amsterdam in 2018, and comprises several initiatives related to improving choice of outcomes in health research – COMET, OMERACT, C3, GRADE, COSMIN, CDISC and SONG.

 

Aim

The initial objective is to work together on a project to share knowledge and understanding of mechanisms to promote uptake of COS in comparative effectiveness research.

 

Current members:

CHORD COUSIN Collaboration (C3): https://www.c3outcomes.org/
Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN): https://www.cosmin.nl/
Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC): https://www.cdisc.org/
MacGRADE Centre, McMaster University: https://cebgrade.mcmaster.ca/
Standardised Outcomes in Nephrology (SONG) Initiative: https://songinitiative.org/
Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT): https://omeract.org/

 


Red Hat Group Statement: WHO Endorsement of Core Outcome Sets

In its recent report, Guidance for Best Practices for Clinical Trials, the World Health Organization (WHO) advocates for the use of Core Outcome Sets (COS) in clinical trials. COS represent a minimum set of outcomes that must be measured in all trials, ensuring consistency and standardization across studies.

 

Adoption of Core Outcome Sets:

  • Ensures outcomes important to patients and to decision makers are used in clinical trials.
  • Reduces research waste by having the same meaningful data across trials.
  • Promotes harmonization of clinical trials thus fostering stronger evidence synthesis to inform policy and practice.

 

The Red Hat Group (RHG) fully supports the WHO’s recommendation, recognizing the transformative potential of COS to advance the quality and impact of clinical research. By advocating for the widespread adoption of COS, RHG seeks to align clinical research with the needs of patients and healthcare providers, fostering collaborative development, shared knowledge, and improved outcomes across trials.

 

Through the RHG, our organizations remain committed to promoting scientific collaboration and facilitating the adoption of COS through joint initiatives that bridge the gap between research, health policy and clinical practice.

 


Presentations

MacGRADE

"Health outcome descriptors" (27th January 2021)
Robby Nieuwlaat and Wojtek Wierchioch (MacGRADE Centre, McMaster University)
 

OMERACT

"Latest update to the OMERACT Filter for Instrument Selection (version 2.2)" (27th January 2021)
Dorcas Beaton (Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, Canada)
 

CDISC

"An Introduction to CDISC standards and the Role of COS in the Development Process" (23rd March 2021)
John Owen (Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium, CDISC)
 

SONG

"A new and consistent SONG: a global initiative to standardise outcomes in nephrology" (24th March 2021)
Jonathan Craig (Flinders University); Allison Tong (University of Sydney)