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In reply: The road to consensus: considerations for the safe use and prescribing of COX‐2‐specific inhibitors
Author(s) -
Edmonds John P,
Day Richard O,
Bertouch James V
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04961.x
Subject(s) - citation , psychology , library science , computer science
We describe a process which aimed to achieve consensus on evidence-based considerations for the safe prescribing and use of the COX-2-specific inhibitors available in Australia among a group of 31 clinicians and other health professionals, drawn from practice, academia and industry. Difficulties were encountered at several points: the composition of the working group was contentious; the evidence, drawn from large clinical studies, was criticised by some for problems of study design, data analysis and reporting; interpretation of study results was influenced by the interpreter's knowledge, skills and biases; and the formulation of the "Considerations" became more controversial as summary statements were contracted and simplified. Agreement on the final draft was achieved among 23 of 31 participants. Evidence-based practice guidelines are a welcome development in modern medicine, but the consensus required to produce them can mask important diversity of opinion.