What Is a Draft Report?

A draft report is a first version of the research findings. The Effective Health Care Program makes this version available to the public before it is officially published so that they can make comments about any of the findings or the way in which they are communicated. All draft reports of technical briefs, systematic reviews, and original research reports are open to public comment for a period of 4 weeks.

The Program uses these comments to help focus the research and ensure that the final comparative effectiveness review answers the most important questions that clinicians, patients, consumers and policymakers have about a given treatment, test, or procedure.

For instance, say that you are a diabetes patient who has come to our Web site to find out how different diabetes drugs compare to one another. You find a draft report of research comparing the benefits and harms of various diabetes drugs and read through the material. However, you notice that the draft report does not offer any information on a recent study you had read about online. You can submit that comment, and researchers will consider whether they should include evidence from this study (or explain why it was not included) in the final version of the report.

The Effective Health Care Program is dedicated to keeping the research process as open to the public as possible. We encourage you to take a look at these draft reports and offer any comments you might have about the research.