Guidelines are essential tools in healthcare decision-making, but there are so many out there. How do you know which ones to trust? This recent article from the BMJ's Family Medicine and Community Health Journal lays out 8 key areas to examine for disparities to help you determine whether a guideline is trustworthy or not. Here is what the authors recommend looking out for:
Disparities between trustworthy evidence-based guidelines and less trustworthy guidelines frequently lie in one of the eight domains. Lack of clarity; a panel composition lacking diversity; lack of transparency regarding conflicts of interest; unclear or inappropriate clinical questions; failure to use a rigorously conducted summary of the evidence; failure to explicitly consider patient’s values and preferences; inappropriate judgement of the strength of the recommendations and, finally, a complex or absent presentation of the judgements that led the panel to a recommendation—can potentially jeopardise the development and credibility of a practice guideline.
- Taken from the Conclusion
You can find a full-text copy of the article at this link. Happy reading!
Physio Finds is a monthly News Update created by PABC’s Knowledge Services Manager Rachael Bradshaw.
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