Figure 5.

Hierarchical approach to efficient variant research. Because a hierarchical relationship exists between evidence types, an ordered approach to the evaluation of evidence can be very efficient. Evidence is evaluated starting with the simplest and potentially most powerful types and working toward the most complicated and subtle types (i.e., from population data and variant type toward clinical data and functional/prediction data). When sufficient evidence for a confident classification is identified, the remaining research can be focused on looking for contradictory evidence.