One of IQWiG's responsibilities is the statutory commission to assess the advantages and disadvantages of medical procedures, for example, to compare different drugs or surgical procedures with each other. For this purpose, the Institute's scientific staff conduct a systematic search of the international scientific literature for studies in which the comparisons in question are described. The researchers use the methods of evidence-based medicine for selecting and assessing the studies. Using this international standard method, it is possible to estimate how reliable the available knowledge actually is.