Resource of the Week #191: Some Guidance on Writing Case Reports

Hello again. This week’s resource is for authors of case reports. It contains a checklist and other aids.

Recently a student asked me for information on how to write a medical case report for a journal. I gave the student some materials on the subject. I also looked for other resources.

I was happy to find a recently developed website on writing case reports. This website focuses on a set of fairly new guidelines. They are called the CARE guidelines—with the CA from the first 2 letters of case and the RE from the first 2 letters of reports.

The website includes a checklist stating what to include in each part of a case report. This checklist currently is provided in English, Chinese, German, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. The CARE group is seeking translations into more languages.

Among other things, the guidelines recommend that case reports include timelines. Examples of such timelines appear on the website. There also are links to an article about the guidelines, links to case reports, and a list of CARE group members.

I hope the student liked this resource. If you write case reports—or if you know someone who does so—perhaps you will find it of interest.

Until the next post—

Barbara