The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has completed the first step of the revision of its methods paper \"General Methods 4.1\" on 28 November 2013 on the Internet. The new document is now the basis for the scientific work of the Institute and its external experts and for cooperation with clients.

Instead of the previous methods to update the document, the Institute revised the \"General Methods 4.0\" in several steps. The first changes relate mainly to Chapter 3 for the early benefit assessment and Section 7.3.8 for meta-analyses.