[Decisions of the German Federal Joint Committee in situations with insufficient data : Decision-making options for new diagnostic and treatment methods].

Background: In accordance with legal requirements, the Federal Joint Committee (German: Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G‑BA) decides based on the best available evidence which new diagnostic and treatment methods are reimbursed by statutory health insurance. If the benefit is proven with sufficient certainty, statutory health insurance providers pay for the new method, otherwise a trial study must be conducted.

Objectives: To present the G‑BA's decision-making options even in the case of insufficient evidence in the field of urology.

Decision making about healthcare-related tests and diagnostic test strategies. Paper 4: International guidelines show variability in their approaches.

Objectives: The objective of the study was to describe and compare current practices in developing guidelines about the use of healthcare-related tests and diagnostic strategies (HCTDS).

Study Design And Setting: We sampled 37 public health and clinical practice guidelines about HCTDS from various sources without language restrictions.

Results: Detailed descriptions of the systems used to assess the quality of evidence and develop recommendations were challenging to find within guidelines.

Decision making about healthcare-related tests and diagnostic test strategies. Paper 3: a systematic review shows limitations in most tools designed to assess quality and develop recommendations.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify and describe critical appraisal tools designed for assessing the quality of evidence (QoE) and/or strength of recommendations (SoRs) related to health care-related tests and diagnostic strategies (HCTDSs).

Study Design And Setting: We conducted a systematic review to identify tools applied in guidelines, methodological articles, and systematic reviews to assess HCTDS.

Results: We screened 5,534 titles and abstracts, 1,004 full-text articles, and abstracted data from 330 references.

Decision making about healthcare-related tests and diagnostic test strategies. Paper 2: a review of methodological and practical challenges.

Objectives: In this first of a series of five articles, we provide an overview of how and why healthcare-related tests and diagnostic strategies are currently applied. We also describe how our findings can be integrated with existing frameworks for making decisions that guide the use of healthcare-related tests and diagnostic strategies.

Study Design And Setting: We searched MEDLINE, references of identified articles, chapters in relevant textbooks, and identified articles citing classic literature on this topic.