Effect of a clinical decision support system on stroke care quality and outcomes in patients with acute ischaemic stroke (GOLDEN BRIDGE II): cluster randomised clinical trial.
Zhang X, Ding L, Jing J, Wang C, Gu H, Jiang Y, Meng X, Liu T, Xie X, Xu M, Hu M, Zhang Y, Fu H, Liu P, Du C, Du K, Wang M, Li H, Gong X, Dong K, Xiong Y, Wang Y, Liu L, Zhang Z, Zang Y, Yang C, Xian Y, Peterson E, Fonarow GC, Schwamm LH, Zhao X, Wang Y, Li Z, GOLDEN BRIDGE II Investigators
Paper source
Effect of a clinical decision support system on stroke care quality and outcomes in patients with acute ischaemic stroke (GOLDEN BRIDGE II): cluster randomised clinical trial.
This rigor review was examined and confirmed by Adcurare Editorial · July 6, 2026
How this rating was calculated▸
- ReportingKey resources not met−0.5★
- ReportingEthical approvals partially met−0.25★
- Key resources not identified
- Ethics/consent reporting incomplete
This Adcurare Rigor Review uses AI Rigor Reviewers trained on a curated corpus of high-fidelity and retracted papers, with expert supervision and curation. It can still make mistakes; verify each finding against the source before relying on it.
This cluster-randomized trial of a stroke CDSS has strong design and reporting, with robust randomization, blinding, a pre-specified power analysis, and transparent reporting. The main weaknesses are the lack of a version/public repository for the CDSS itself and the absence of an explicit statement of compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
The three independent reviewers converged on most dimensions; the key divergences were in ethical approvals (where one reviewer found an explicit Helsinki statement and two did not) and key resources (where the CDSS identification was judged as pass/warn/fail). The statistics verification component checked 12 tests; all were consistent. The citation component found no flagged references.
12 major claims checked against the paper's own evidence: all adequately supported.
Recomputed 12 tests: 12 consistent, 0 inconsistent, 12 via agent-written checks.
5 copyedit issues flagged: mostly other, typo, consistency.
Checked 44 references: 44 verified.
1 data/code link checked; 0 live.
Registered (3 IDs: ClinicalTrials.gov). Reporting guideline cited: CONSORT.
The manuscript is well-prepared and can be submitted after addressing a few straightforward items: adding an explicit Declaration of Helsinki statement, providing a version or repository link for the CDSS, including assumption checks for the Cox model, and depositing the analysis code in a version-controlled repository. The copyedit issues are minor and can be corrected quickly.
- 1.HIGHethicsAdd an explicit statement of compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki (or ICH-GCP) in the Ethics section.One reviewer noted the absence of this statement, which is a standard requirement for clinical trials.
- 2.HIGHrigorProvide a version number and/or a public repository link (e.g., GitHub, Zenodo with DOI) for the clinical decision support system software in the Methods, Interventions section.The CDSS is the key investigational product; without version or access details, reproducibility is compromised.
- 3.HIGHstatisticsIn the Statistical analysis section, add a brief statement verifying the proportional hazards assumption for the Cox regression models (e.g., by testing Schoenfeld residuals).All three reviewers flagged that assumptions are not explicitly verified, which is a standard reporting expectation.
- 4.HIGHdata codeDeposit the analysis code in a version-controlled repository (e.g., GitHub, Zenodo) with a persistent DOI and update the Data availability statement accordingly.Code in a supplementary appendix lacks versioning and permanent identification, which hinders reproducibility and discoverability.
- 5.MEDIUMreportingIn the Statistical analysis section, describe the pre-specified plan for handling missing outcome data or note that missing data were minimal and no imputation was performed.A reviewer flagged outlier_handling as inadequate; a clear statement on missing data handling strengthens methodological rigor.
- 6.MEDIUMcopyeditRemove the extraneous header metadata on the title page (the string '3 bmj The BMJ BMJ BMJ Publishing Group PMC13003563...').This is a parsing artifact that should not appear in the final manuscript.
- 7.MEDIUMcopyeditIn the Abstract, Design, add 'the' before 'intervention group' and 'control group' for grammatical consistency.The copyedit report flagged a minor article omission: '38 randomised to the intervention group, 39 to the control group'.
- 8.LOWcopyeditIn the Methods, Sample size, clarify whether the 4.7% event rate is a calculated value or an estimate, and ensure consistency with the stated 26% relative reduction.The copyedit noted a minor numerical rounding inconsistency (6.4% to 4.7% = 26.6% reduction, not exactly 26%).
- 9.LOWreportingIn the Discussion, Limitations, rephrase 'days in hospital and hospital admission costs' to 'length of stay or hospitalisation costs' for clarity.The copyedit suggested a minor phrasing improvement for fluency and precision.
- 10.LOWotherIf feasible, consider including a formal cost-effectiveness analysis as noted in the limitations, or provide data on hospital costs and length of stay.This is a suggestion for strengthening the implications, but it is not a pre-submission requirement.
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