Premium
Developing clinical practice guidelines for epilepsy: A report from the ILAE Epilepsy Guidelines Working Group
Author(s) -
Sauro Khara M.,
Wiebe Samuel,
Perucca Emilio,
French Jacqueline,
Dunkley Colin,
Marinis Alejandro,
Kirkpatrick Martin,
Jetté Nathalie
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
epilepsia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.687
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1528-1167
pISSN - 0013-9580
DOI - 10.1111/epi.13217
Subject(s) - excellence , guideline , health care , scope (computer science) , medicine , working group , best practice , quality (philosophy) , epilepsy , medical education , family medicine , political science , computer science , psychiatry , pathology , philosophy , epistemology , law , programming language
Summary Clinical practice guidelines ( CPG s) contain evidence‐based recommendations to guide clinical care, policy development, and quality of care improvement. A recent systematic review of epilepsy guidelines identified considerable variability in the quality of available guidelines. Although excellent frameworks for CPG development exist, processes are not followed uniformly internationally, and resources to develop CPG s may be limited in certain settings. An International League Against Epilepsy ( ILAE ) working group was charged with proposing methodology to guide the development of future epilepsy‐specific CPG s. A comprehensive literature search (1985–2014) identified articles related to CPG development and handbooks. Guideline handbooks were included if they were publicly available, and if their methodology had been used to develop CPG s. The working group's expertise also informed the creation of methodologies and processes to develop future CPG s for the ILAE . Five handbooks from North America (American Academy of Neurology), Europe (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network & National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), Australia (National Health and Medical Research Council), World Health Organization ( WHO ), and additional references were identified to produce evidence‐based, consensus‐driven methodology for development of epilepsy‐specific CPG s. Key components of CPG development include the following: identifying the topic and defining the scope; establishing a working group; identifying and evaluating the evidence; formulating recommendations and determining strength of recommendations; obtaining peer reviews; dissemination, implementation, and auditing; and updating and retiring the CPG . A practical handbook and toolkit was developed. The resulting CPG development toolkit should facilitate the development of high‐quality ILAE CPG s to improve the care of persons with epilepsy.