A Protocol of a Guideline to Establish the Evidence Ecosystem of Acupuncture.

Qin Wang,Rongjiang Jin,Dongling Zhong,Yuxi Li,Ying He,Juan Li,Jin Fan,Xiaobo Liu,Deying Kang,Yonggang Zhang,Nian Li

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.711197

Abstract

This is a protocol for developing a guideline to establish the evidence ecosystem of acupuncture. It describes all steps that will be followed in line with the World Health Organization Handbook for Guideline Development and the Reporting Items for practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT). The key steps included guideline protocol development, guideline registration, systematic review of acupuncture evidence issues, systematic review of methods for establishing evidence ecosystem, survey of acupuncture stakeholders regarding potential acupuncture evidence issues, development of potential items for guidelines, Delphi method for guideline item development, consensus meeting, drafting guideline, peer review, approval, and publishing. This future guideline will help to establish evidence ecosystem of acupuncture, which will facilitate the application of acupuncture in clinical practice.

Highlights

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had placed acupuncture on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity [1] and this therapy had been deemed safe and effective
More than 60,000 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), 6,000 systematic reviews, and 1,000 recommendations had been published, while some studies were published in top journals [3, 4], which promoted the use of acupuncture worldwide
After the approval of the guideline, the evidence ecosystem will be established. This is a protocol for the development of a guideline, which will be used to establish an acupuncture evidence ecosystem

Summary

A Protocol of a Guideline to Establish the Evidence Ecosystem of Acupuncture

Qin Wang 1†, Nian Li 2†, Juan Li 3, Ying He 4, Yuxi Li 3, Dongling Zhong 3, Xiaobo Liu 3, Jin Fan 3, Rongjiang Jin 3, Deying Kang 1* and Yonggang Zhang 1,4*. The key steps included guideline protocol development, guideline registration, systematic review of acupuncture evidence issues, systematic review of methods for establishing evidence ecosystem, survey of acupuncture stakeholders regarding potential acupuncture evidence issues, development of potential items for guidelines, Delphi method for guideline item development, consensus meeting, drafting guideline, peer review, approval, and publishing. This future guideline will help to establish evidence ecosystem of acupuncture, which will facilitate the application of acupuncture in clinical practice

INTRODUCTION

METHODS

Literature Search

DISCUSSION

Introduction