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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2011 Mar 21;41(2):95–105. doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2010.12.001
Advantages Disadvantages

  • Synthesis of published literature prior to consensus techniques incorporated

  • Allows for both confidential ratings as well as group discussion

  • Multi-disciplinary panel encourage consensus from a wider group

  • Reproducibility of RAM ranges from moderate to excellent as determined by different panelists for “appropriate” and “inappropriate” care (53).

  • Acceptable predictive validity for a recommendation supported by RCTs(54).

  • Misclassification is expected (49)

  • Takes great deal of time from gathering of the evidence to multiple rounds of consensus.

  • Face-to-face which can add cost/time delay and lead to highly opinionated individuals in the field dominating the discussion

  • Requires third party (core panel) to construct clinical indications for an intervention and analyze/interpret the results from the expert panel meeting

  • 9-point Likert scale can be cumbersome

  • Requires voting on multiple case scenarios (sometimes > 1,000)