Development of practice guidelines

Abstract

The emphasis of debate among guideline developers in recent years has shifted largely from the “what” of evidence-based guidelines to the “how”. Statements of the key principles underpinning the development of evidencebased guidelines 1 Institute of Medicine Guidelines for clinical practice: from development to use. National Academic Press, Washington DC1992 Google Scholar have been superseded by more detailed descriptions 2 National Health and Medical Research Council A guide to the development, implementation and evaluation of clinical practice guidelines. NHMRC, Canberra1999 Google Scholar , 3 Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network SIGN guidelines: an introduction to SIGN methodology for the development of evidencebased clinical guidelines. SIGN, Edinburgh1999 Google Scholar of the methods that have been devised to develop guidelines that are multidisciplinary, that are based on a systematic review of published work, and that explicitly link the recommendations to the supporting evidence. Practice guidelines developed by specialty societies: the need for a critical appraisalDespite improvement over time, the quality of practice guidelines developed by specialty societies is unsatisfactory. Explicit methodological criteria for the production of guidelines shared among public agencies, scientific societies, and patients' associations need to be set up. Common standards of reporting, following the same principles that led to the CONSORT statement for randomised clinical trials, should be promoted. Full-Text PDF