Development of rapid guidelines: 1. Systematic survey of current practices and methods

Abstract

Background

Guidelines in the healthcare field generally should contain evidence-based recommendations to inform healthcare decisions. Guidelines often require 2 years or more to develop, but certain circumstances necessitate the development of rapid guidelines (RGs) in a short period of time. Upholding methodological rigor while meeting the reduced development timeframe presents a challenge for developing RGs. Our objective was to review current practices and standards for the development of RGs. This is the first of a series of three articles addressing methodological issues around RGs.

Methods

We conducted a systematic survey of methods manuals and published RGs to identify reasons for the development of RGs. Data sources included existing guideline manuals, published RGs, Trip Medical Database, MEDLINE, EMBASE and communication with guideline developers until February 2018.

Results

We identified 46 guidelines that used a shortened timeframe for their development. Nomenclature describing RGs varied across organisations, wherein the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced ‘Interim Guidelines’, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the United Kingdom developed ‘Short Clinical Guidelines’, and WHO provided ‘Rapid Advice’. The rationale for RGs included response to emergencies, rapid increases in cases of a condition or disease severity, or new evidence regarding treatment. In general, the methods to assess the quality of evidence, the consensus process and the management of the conflict of interest were not always clear. While we identified another 11 RGs from other institutions, there was no reference to timeframe and reasons for conducting a RG. The three organisations mentioned above provide guidance for the development of RGs.

Conclusions

There is a lack of standardised nomenclature and definitions regarding RGs and there is inconsistency in the methods described in manuals and in RG. It is therefore important that all RGs provide a detailed and transparent description of their methods in order for readers and end-users to be able to assess their quality and validate their findings.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12961-018-0327-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Contributors

Sergio C. Kowalski: [e-mail] , [e-mail]

Rebecca L. Morgan: [e-mail]

Maicon Falavigna: [e-mail]

Iván D. Florez: [e-mail] , [e-mail]

Itziar Etxeandia-Ikobaltzeta: [e-mail]

Wojtek Wiercioch: [e-mail]

Yuan Zhang: [e-mail]

Faria Sakhia: [e-mail]

Liudmila Ivanova: [e-mail]

Nancy Santesso: [e-mail]

Holger J. Schünemann: [phone] , [e-mail]

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Health Res Policy Syst

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Health Res Policy Syst

Title: Health Research Policy and Systems

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1478-4505

Publication date (Electronic): 13 July 2018

Publication date PMC-release: 13 July 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 16

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact and Mac GRADE Center, , McMaster University Health Sciences Centre, ; Room 2C16, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8N 4K1 Canada

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1941 472X, GRID grid.20736.30, Department of Internal Medicine, , Division of Rheumatology- Universidade Federal do Paraná, ; R. Gen. Carneiro, 181, Curitiba, PR Brazil

[3 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0398 2134, GRID grid.414856.a, Hospital Moinhos de Vento, ; Porto Alegre, Brazil

[4 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2200 7498, GRID grid.8532.c, National Institute of Science and Technology for Health Technology Assessment, , Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, ; Porto Alegre, Brazil

[5 ]ISNI 0000 0000 8882 5269, GRID grid.412881.6, Department of Pediatrics, , University of Antioquia, ; Cra. 51D #62-29, Medellin, 050001 Colombia

[6 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, Public Health & Preventive Medicine Residency Program (including Family Medicine), , McMaster University, ; 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8 Canada

[7 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, Cochrane Canada Center, , McMaster University, Health Sciences Centre, Room 2C14, ; 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1 Canada

[8 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, Department of Medicine, , McMaster University, Health Sciences Centre, Room 2C14, ; 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1 Canada

Article

Publisher ID: 327

DOI: 10.1186/s12961-018-0327-8

PMC ID: 6044042

PubMed ID: 30005712

Copyright statement: © The Author(s). 2018

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Categories

Subject: Research

Custom metadata

issue-copyright-statement © The Author(s) 2018