Reducing research waste through the standardisation of outcomes and definitions

The body of evidence indicating that the poor reporting of outcomes in research hinders progress in medicine is growing. For example, a systematic review of 79 randomised trials evaluating therapeutic interventions for pre‐eclampsia has identified 72 different maternal and 47 offspring outcomes.1 In addition to the lack of consensus regarding which outcomes to measure, there is also disagreement on which definitions or instruments to use for measurements.2 The authors of another study identified a lack of uniformity in the definition of maternal morbidities,3 that hinder comparisons of those conditions across countries