The quality of medical record review studies in the international emergency medicine literature

Abstract

Study objective: We assess the methodologic quality of studies using medical record review methodology in 4 international emergency medicine journals. A secondary aim was to compare methodology quality among these journals and across years. Methods: This was an observational study of articles whose main methodology was medical record review published in Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), Annals of Emergency Medicine (Annals), Emergency Medicine Journal (EMJ), and Emergency Medicine Australasia (EMA) between January 2002 and May 2004. Eligible articles were reviewed for reporting of a clear hypothesis or objective, training of abstractors, defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, use of a st..