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Why
One report is an event; 2 are a coincidence, and a third is a potential association. Case reports are one of the most relevant types of manuscripts. A PubMed analysis of a 30-year span (1991-2020) found more than 1 million articles of primary literature, with case reports representing 27.54%.1 Case reports describe new diseases or disease mechanisms, therapeutic approaches, and adverse or beneficial effects of drugs. They are short communications intended to share experiences with an interesting or unusual patient case. A case report tells a real-world story that can be applied to similar scenarios. If applied and the outcome is repeated, it leads to further evaluation and larger study designs.
Clinicians will use case reports to direct the care provided to patients, including home infusion patients. Case reports can offer solutions to individualized problems when dealing with rare diseases or new medications. Home infusion professionals regularly receive prescriptions for off-label indications or medication doses, and they may find the only information supporting it is a single case report.
Infusion Journal wants to publish case reports from home infusion professionals. When you are collaborating and solving potential barriers to onboarding a patient to home infusion services, those innovations can be written into a case report. The patient with a specific reason for previously being ineligible for home infusion might be the case report that raises awareness of a protocol to safely manage other patients with the same issue.
Case reports are shorter and easier to write than other types of manuscripts. The focus is on an exceptional patient situation and discusses it in detail, adding a literature review to the topic. Authors should write about why the main message is important and provide descriptions of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, or follow-up of an individual patient. Well-written and transparent case reports reveal early signals of potential benefits, harms, and information on the use of resources; provide information for clinical research and clinical practice guidelines; and inform medical education.2
How
A case report tells a story in a narrative format covering clinical findings, diagnoses, interventions, outcomes, and follow-up. Case reports support clinical research with evidence from episodes of care. The development of case reporting guidelines has improved the communication of this valuable type of research.2 When written with reporting guidelines, case reports provide comprehensive information related to clinical management, leading to further study, replication, and transparency.
Infusion Journal accepts submissions of Case Reports for publication and requests authors follow Case Reporting (CARE) Guidelines for Case Reports developed by a consensus group to support the publication of accurate, complete, and transparent case reports (see the checklist on next page).2
The home setting for infusion medications offers an ample supply of topics for interesting and unique patient cases to report. If you have a patient case or idea for writing a case report or questions about submitting a manuscript to Infusion Journal, contact: infusionjournal@nhia.org.
Learn more about the journal and review information on manuscript submission.
Checklist of Information to Include in Written Case Reports3
Item |
Description of Item and Information to Include |
|---|---|
|
Title |
The diagnosis or intervention of primary focus followed by the words “case report” |
|
Key Words |
2 - 5 key words that identify diagnoses or interventions in this case report |
|
Abstract |
|
|
Patient Information |
|
|
Clinical Findings |
Describe significant physical examination and important clinical findings. |
|
Timeline |
Historical and current information from this episode of care organized as a timeline |
|
Diagnostic Assessment |
|
|
Therapeutic Intervention |
|
|
Outcomes |
|
|
Discussion |
|
|
Patient Perspective |
The patient should share their perspective on the treatment(s) they received. |
|
Informed Consent |
The patient should give informed consent. |
1. Zhao X, Jiang H, Yin J, Liu H, Zhu R, Mei S, et al. Changing trends in clinical research literature on PubMed database from 1991 to 2020. European Journal of Medical Research. 2022;27(1). doi: 10.1186/ s40001-022-00717-9.
2. Riley DS, Barber MS, Kienle GS, Aronson JK, Von Schoen-Angerer T, Tugwell P, et al. CARE guidelines for case reports: explanation and elaboration document. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2017;89:218-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.04.026.
3. CARE Checklist of Information to Include when writing a case report. 2013. Case Report Guidelines. CARE Statement. https://www.care-statement.org/checklist. Accessed January 15, 2023.
