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case-control-study-quality-assessment-nos

Clinical Research Bias Assessment - Case-Control Study (NOS) v2.3.0. Use when you need to assess the bias of a case-control study using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) criteria, or when evaluating the quality of a medical paper.

55

Quality

62%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Optimize this skill with Tessl

npx tessl skill review --optimize ./scientific-skills/Data Analysis/Case-control-study-quality-assessment-nos/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

35%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

This skill suffers significantly from boilerplate bloat — roughly 60-70% of the content is generic template text that adds no NOS-specific value and wastes context window tokens. The core NOS assessment workflow (Selection, Comparability, Exposure evaluation) is present but lacks concrete examples, expected JSON schemas, and validation checkpoints. The skill would be dramatically improved by stripping all generic sections and focusing on the domain-specific NOS criteria, example inputs/outputs, and the actual assessment workflow.

Suggestions

Remove all generic boilerplate sections (When to Use, When Not to Use, Required Inputs, Recommended Workflow, Output Contract, Validation and Safety Rules, Failure Handling) — these describe behaviors Claude already knows and waste ~60% of the token budget.

Add a concrete example showing a sample NOS evaluation: input study excerpt → expected JSON output with scores for each domain, so Claude knows exactly what the deliverable looks like.

Define the expected JSON schema for the format_nos_table.py input explicitly, so the handoff between evaluation and formatting is unambiguous.

Add a validation checkpoint after the JSON aggregation step (Step 3) to verify all required NOS fields are populated before running the formatting script.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Extremely verbose and repetitive. The skill contains multiple redundant sections (e.g., 'When to Use', 'When Not to Use', 'Required Inputs', 'Recommended Workflow', 'Output Contract', 'Validation and Safety Rules', 'Failure Handling') that are generic boilerplate not specific to NOS assessment. The actual NOS-specific content (the Usage and Detailed Workflow sections) is buried among filler. Concepts like 'validate inputs before execution' and 'don't fabricate results' are things Claude already knows.

1 / 3

Actionability

The NOS-specific workflow steps (Selection, Comparability, Exposure evaluation) provide some concrete guidance, and there are executable bash commands for the scripts. However, the actual NOS criteria are deferred to a reference file, the JSON schema for output is never shown, and the detailed workflow steps lack concrete examples of what a proper evaluation looks like. The format_nos_table.py command is shown but the expected JSON input structure is missing.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The detailed workflow has a clear 4-step sequence (Selection → Comparability → Exposure → Generate Summary Table), which is good. However, there are no validation checkpoints between steps, no feedback loops for error recovery, and the workflow is diluted by a separate generic 'Recommended Workflow' section that competes with the actual NOS-specific workflow. No example of what valid intermediate output looks like at each step.

2 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

There is a reference to `references/nos_criteria_prompts.md` for detailed criteria, which is appropriate progressive disclosure. However, no bundle files were provided to verify these exist, the 'Key Features' section vaguely mentions 'Reference material available in references/' without specifics, and the overall document structure is poorly organized with redundant sections that could be consolidated or removed entirely.

2 / 3

Total

7

/

12

Passed

Description

89%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

This is a well-crafted description for a niche skill. It clearly identifies the methodology (NOS), study type (case-control), and includes an explicit 'Use when' clause with natural trigger terms. The main weakness is that it doesn't enumerate the specific actions or outputs the skill produces (e.g., scoring individual NOS domains, generating summary bias ratings).

Suggestions

Add specific concrete actions the skill performs, e.g., 'Scores selection, comparability, and exposure domains; generates overall quality ratings and bias risk summaries.'

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Names the domain (clinical research bias assessment) and the specific methodology (Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for case-control studies), but doesn't list the concrete actions performed — e.g., scoring selection criteria, evaluating comparability, assessing exposure ascertainment.

2 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (assess bias of a case-control study using NOS criteria) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when' clause covering both NOS-specific assessment and broader medical paper quality evaluation).

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Includes strong natural trigger terms: 'bias assessment', 'case-control study', 'Newcastle-Ottawa Scale', 'NOS', 'quality of a medical paper'. These are terms a researcher would naturally use when seeking this functionality.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Highly distinctive — the combination of 'case-control study', 'Newcastle-Ottawa Scale', and 'NOS' creates a very specific niche that is unlikely to conflict with other skills. The version number and specific study design type further narrow the scope.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

12

Passed

Validation

90%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation10 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

10

/

11

Passed

Repository
aipoch/medical-research-skills
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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