Message from the Director
There are indeed some significant reasons that inspired me to establish the Chinese EQUATOR Centre, specifically:
Firstly, as the EQUATOR Network is an international initiative, which has a foundational impact on the transparency of reporting, its dissemination and application. However, its impact in China still limited. Thus, a bridge is needed to spread EQUATOR Spirit throughout China.
Secondly, China is the primary country in clinical research and is continuously contributing clinical studies and evidence to the development of Evidence-based Medicine. Much of clinical research from China is published in Chinese, instead of in English, and there is a need for further improvement of their reporting quality.
Thirdly, a large number of Chinese clinical research focused on complementary and alternative therapies, especially Chinese medicine. More and more studies of Chinese medicine contribute to health promotion around the world, such as Chinese herbal medicines, acupuncture and moxibustion, etc. However, small of them are at high quality level. Although the Chinese government and researchers have realized the importance of rigor of methods and adequate reporting according to the EQUATOR recommendations, there is still no systematic method which could be adopted to meet such need in China.
Finally, an increasing number of Chinese methodologists begin to involve in the field of quality and transparency improvement of Chinese studies, such as CONSORT for Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas (Cheng CW et al., 2017) and RIGHT (A Reporting Tool for Practice Guidelines in Health Care) statement (Chen YL et al., 2017) had been published these years. Besides, some other Guidelines are being developed, particularly related with the intervention of Chinese medicine. Although most of these guidelines are registered at the EQUATOR, developed according to international criteria, and taken a big financial and human resources, it would be a great challenge to disseminate, implement and monitor these guidelines. Hence to establish the Chinese EQUATOR Centre would be a useful way to solve these problems.
For the successful establishment of the Chinese EQUATOR Centre, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the strong support from Prof. Moher David and the other four Centres.
Professor Zhaoxiang BIAN
Director of Chinese EQUATOR Centre
December 2019