Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is a CoSTR?
    ILCOR employs a rigorous strategy to review the current evidence and reach a consensus on the quality of published evidence. This science is summarised as a “Consensus on Science” statement (CoS). The ILCOR community (international experts) then consider this evidence and its potential impact on care to reach a conclusion regarding the best treatment strategy: a Treatment Recommendation (TR). These Treatment Recommendations are accompanied by a statement regarding the values and preferences that have helped guide the recommendation(s). When evidence is lacking ILCOR will make recommendations based on expert opinion to guide current treatment strategies, and in some situations a decision may be made to not make a treatment recommendation. It may be that over time new data emerges that challenges the current assumptions and consensus statements. To address this, ILCOR is moving towards a continuous evidence evaluation process, using dedicated scientific leads to review the current literature and alerting the scientific community if a consensus on science and treatment recommendation (CoSTR) needs to be revisited and rewritten.
  • What is a Draft for Public Comment?
    When a CoSTR is marked 'Draft for Public Comment', users will have two weeks from the posting date to leave comments on this CoSTR. After two weeks, the commenting period will close and the comments will be used to rework the CoSTR as needed.
  • What is a Final Draft?
    When a CoSTR is marked 'Final Draft' it means that the public commenting period has passed and that the CoSTR has been adapted to take into account the comments received. The Final Draft CoSTR has not yet been published in any scientific journals yet. Commenting on a Final Draft is not possible.
  • What is a Final Version?
    The Final Version of a CoSTR is the version that has been published in scientific journals. Commenting on a Final Version is possible, but the comments will not be used to change the CoSTR. They will however be taken into account for future CoSTRs.
  • What is the Continuous Evidence Evaluation Process?
    You will find all information about CoSTRs and the Continuous Evidence Evaluation Process on the About CoSTR page.
  • Why do we ask the public to comment on draft Consensus on Science and Treatment Recommendations (CoSTRs)?
    Public comment is sought after creation of the initial draft consensus on science statements and treatment recommendations to ensure as much broad input as possible is obtained during the evidence evaluation process. The public comments are made available to the evidence reviewers and task forces for their consideration. This is in accord with the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine for guideline development. In 2015 a total of 492 comments were received and considered.
  • What is a Conflict of Interest (CoI)?
    A conflict of interest is any circumstance that is reasonably believed to create a risk to unduly influence your public comment.
  • Why do we ask you to declare a Conflict of Interest (CoI) before posting a comment?
    In order to preserve both the public trust and the integrity of the ILCOR evidence evaluation process, ILCOR follows a strict conflict of interest policy to manage any real or potential conflicts of interest in an open and effective manner and is applicable to all that participate in the process, including public comments. When commenting in addition to financial relationships, other bases of potential conflicts of interest related to the comment must be considered, such as in-kind support, intellectual collaboration or intellectual investment in one’s own ideas.
  • What is the relationship (or the difference) between the ILCOR CoSTRs and guidelines?
    The Consensus on Science and Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR) developed by ILCOR represent the international consensus statement regarding the published science available for a specific topic. The various resuscitation councils around the world write more elaborate coordinated recommendations (Guidelines) for their specific national/international audiences. The Guidelines are usually about broader topics, or incorporate a combination of multiple individual topics. The CoSTR statements are used by the resuscitation councils to inform the writing of their Guidelines. Often the same wording is used in the Guidelines as is written in the individual ILCOR summary of science documents (CoSTR).