During the medical rescue after the earthquake, the Security Department of West China Hospital understood those factors affecting the hospital safety in the earthquake disaster, established emergent communication platform and information release channel, and opened up special areas and passages for the wounded, so as to ensure smooth passages for the rescue work, security of disaster-relief materials as well as an orderly, safe and stable medical environment.
The financial conflict of interests is drawing a wide attention, while several problems such as the unclarity of definition and blurred boundary of classification exist when it comes to the nonfinancial conflict of interests. Taking clinical practice guidelines as the example, this study introduce how nonfinancial conflict of interests happen, their classifications and impact based on present situation of relevant studies.
Surgical management of osteoarthritis of the knee: evidence based guideline contains 38 recommendations pertaining to the preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative care of patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) who are considering surgical treatment. Compared with the domestic consensus on diagnosis and treatment for KOA, this clinical practice guideline (CPG) prepared by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) has some advantages in terms of methodology selection and recommendation. Therefore, it is necessary for us to interpret this CPG to speed up the understanding and dissemination of the CPG. The ultimate aims are to: ① strengthen the standardization and understanding of surgical treatment of KOA; ② enhance the understanding of clinicians for this CPG in treating KOA; ③ speed up the development of guideline development methodologies in China; ④ provide methodological guidance for the development of CPG based on the current situation in China.
The focus of health equity is to enable the public to have fair access to health services and achieve satisfactory health outcomes. With research developments, guideline developers increasingly pay more attention to the fairness in the practice guidelines and have carried out exploration and practice in the relevant guidelines. The GRADE working group has begun to investigate how to use GRADE to assess health equity in practice guidelines since 2014. In 2017, the series of methodological guidelines of health equity in guideline development was officially published. It proposed 5 approaches to evaluate health equity and pointed out current methodological challenges of applying GRADE to assess health equity. This paper aims to introduce the GRADE equity guidelines, so as to provide a reference for Chinese researchers in their practice.
Adapting the existing guidelines in the context of specific regions can improve the efficiency of guidelines development, and reduce cost and time for developing guidelines. ADOLOPMENT is a methodological tool for guidelines adaptation, which was developed by the GRADE Working Group based on the standardized international guidelines making process. With ADOLOPMENT, developers can effectively use existing guidelines and evidence, avoid duplication of the evidence evaluation, and record the process from evidence to recommendations, which will ensure the transparency of adaptation, help users to understand the process, and improve the acceptability and credibility of guideline adaptation. This paper aims to introduce the ADOLOPMENT and its application.
ObjectivesTo investigate Chinese health practitioners’ usage and demand for clinical practice guidelines in general so as to improve the development and implementation of guidelines.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey that covered health practitioners from different levels of medical institutions in 17 provinces in China. Attitudes, adherence, usage barriers and demands for clinical practice guidelines were investigated.ResultsA total of 953 health practitioners were involved in the survey in which 931 completed the questionnaires. Respondents generally held positive attitudes toward guidelines and agreed that they improved quality of care and standardized diagnosis and treatment. More than 80% of the respondents reported a fine adherence to guidelines. The most reported barriers to follow the guidelines were " several guidelines are competing” and " lack of facilities and medical resources”. Most respondents agreed that it was necessary to establish a national guideline database, appraise implementation effect of guidelines, develop evaluation tools for guidelines that are applicable for Chinese clinical practice, and provide guidelines training.ConclusionsThis study finds favorable attitudes and fine adherence towards clinical guidelines in general in China. However, internal barriers, such as authority of guidelines, and external barriers, such as supplying system and patients’ preference, can affect guideline dissemination and implementation. It is suggested that establishing a national guidelines database, developing evaluation tools for guidelines that fit for Chinese clinical practice, and provision of guideline training, would facilitate the use of guidelines.
ObjectivesTo systematically review the necessary factors of questionnaires design on patients' values and preferences in order to provide information on the most appropriate questionnaires when developing clinical practice guidelines.MethodsA systematic literature search of PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI and WanFang Data databases was performed to identify studies on questionnaires evaluating patient values and preferences. The authors included the articles that used fully structured questionnaires or scales with standardized questions and answer options. We assessed the questionnaires' construction with psychometric methodology and summarized the necessary factors on patients' preferences and values into the domains and items.ResultsTwenty articles were eventually included. Five out of 20 studies (25%, 5/20) described the process of item generation while merely one questionnaire (5%, 1/20) mentioned pilot testing. Regarding validity, there were 6 questionnaires (30%, 6/20) that assessed validity. For acceptability, the time taken to complete the questionnaires range from 10 to 30 minutes and only 6 studies reported response rates. The results showed that the factors affecting the design of questionnaires on patients' values and preference were related to the effectiveness, safety, prognostic factors and others. The main factors were the effects, side effects and risk of complications, risk of relapse and the cost of treatments.ConclusionsOnly a few studies have developed questionnaires with rigorous psychometric methods to measure patients' preference and values. There is still no valid or reliable questionnaires for patients' preference and values when developing clinical practice guidelines. Further study should be conducted to develop standardized instruments to measure patients' preference and values. It is suggested that the factors this study provides can be used in formulating questionnaires on patients' preference and values.
Objective To evaluate the quality of Chinese clinical practice guidelines published in domestic medical journals in 2011. Methods The following 4 Chinese databases including WanFang Data, VIP, CNKI and CBM were searched from January 2011 to December 2011. The quality of included guidelines was assessed by using AGREE II. Results A total of 75 guidelines published in 2011 were included. Among them, 10 guidelines (13%) stated the conflict of interest, 10 guidelines (13%) mentioned evidence-based developing, 5 guidelines (7%) performed evidence grading system, 8 guidelines (11%) performed recommendation strength grading system, and 4 guidelines (5%) performed both evidence and recommendation strength grading systems. The ratio of the 6 domains’ scores of AGREEⅡ were as follows: scope and purpose (18%), stakeholder involvement (11%), rigour of development (8%), clarity of presentation (34%), applicability (5%), and editorial independence (14%). Conclusion Compared with the guidelines published before, the guidelines of 2011 have a higher quality and some of them are progressively standardized in developing methodology.
ObjectivesTo investigate the awareness and knowledge of Chinese guideline developers on the patient version of guidelines (PVG).MethodsA questionnaire was developed and distributed to participants of the guideline development workshop on the " 2017 Chinese Medical Doctor Association Annual Conference on Evidence-Based Medicine & Gansu Medical Doctor Association/ Gansu Medical Association Annual Conference on Evidence-Based Medicine”, and guideline developers in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xi’an, Beijing and other places were investigated through field surveys. The questionnaire included ten questions centred on respondents’ awareness and their views on the development of PVG. After the invalid questionnaire was excluded, Excel 2013 software was used for data entry, and SPSS 19.0 software was used for data analysis.Results150 questionnaires were distributed and 107 (71.3%) were collected, from which 90 (60.0%) questionnaires with complete response were analyzed. For the awareness of PVG: 30.0% of respondents chose " just know it without more knowledge”, 34.4% chose " never heard of”. The awareness was not associated with educational or departmental background, majors and regions (P>0.05). For opinions on PVG and its development process: 86.7% of the respondents thought PVG is necessary, 90% thought the presentation of PVG needs to follow reporting standards, and 45.6% thought the primary barrier of the development of PVG is lack of cognition.ConclusionsResearch work on PVGs is at an initial stage in China. The awareness among Chinese guideline developers and relevant researchers is lacking and the development methodology requires further exploration. Carrying out research relevant to PVG can promote its development and application in China, so as to improve the clinical practice.
Objective The purpose of the extension of the RIGHT statement for introductions and interpretations of clinical practice guidelines (RIGHT for INT) was to promote the development of comprehensive and clear article those introduced and interpreted clinical practice guidelines. MethodsThe RIGHT for INT checklist was developed following methods recommended by the EQUATOR Network. The development process included three stages. In the first stage, a multidisciplinary team of experts was recruited by email and WeChat and further divided into three groups (a steering group, a consensus group, and a secretariat group); in the second stage, the initial items were collected by literature review and brainstorming; and in the third stage, the final items were formed through a Delphi survey and expert consultation. ResultsA total of 40 initial items were collected through literature review and brainstorming. A final checklist of 27 items was formed after the Delphi survey and expert consultation. ConclusionThe RIGHT for INT checklist provides guidance for guideline interpreters on how to introduce and interpret clinical practice guidelines in a scientific and comprehensive manner.