ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Information retrieval (IR) in health technology assessment (HTA) calls for transparency and reproducibility, but common practice in the documentation and presentation of this process is inadequate in fulfilling this demand. OBJECTIVES: Our objective is to promote good IR practice by presenting the conceptualization of retrieval and transcription readable to non-information specialists, and reporting of effectively processed search strategies. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive database search (04/2010) to synthesize the current state-of-the-art. We then developed graphical and tabular presentation methods and tested their feasibility on existing research questions and defined recommendations. RESULTS: No generally accepted standard of reporting of IR in HTA exists. We, therefore, developed templates for presenting the retrieval conceptualization, database selection, and additional hand-searching as well as for presenting search histories of complex and lengthy search strategies. No single template fits all conceptualizations, but some can be applied to most processes. Database interface providers report queries as entered, not as they are actually processed. In PubMed, the huge difference between entered and processed query is shown in "Details." Quality control and evaluation of search strategies using a validated tool such as the PRESS checklist is suboptimal when only entry-query based search histories are applied. CONCLUSIONS: Moving toward an internationally accepted IR reporting standard calls for advances in common reporting practices. Comprehensive, process-based reporting and presentation would make IR more understandable to others than information specialists and facilitate quality control.
Subject(s)
Information Storage and Retrieval/methods , Research Design/standards , Technology Assessment, BiomedicalABSTRACT
The Programme for National Disease Management Guidelines (German DM-CPG Programme) was established in 2002 by the German Medical Association (umbrella organisation of the German Chambers of Physicians) and joined by the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies (AWMF)--umbrella organisation of more than 150 professional societies--and by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (NASHIP) in 2003. The programme provides a conceptual basis for disease management, focussing on high priority healthcare topics and aiming at the implementation of best practice recommendations for prevention, acute care, rehabilitation and chronic care. It is organised by the German Agency for Quality in Medicine, a founding member of the Guidelines International Network G-I-N. The main objective of the German DM-CPG Programme is to establish consensus among the medical professions on evidence-based key recommendations covering all sectors of healthcare provision and facilitating the coordination of care for the individual patient through time and across interfaces. Within the last year DM-CPGs have been published for asthma, COPD, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. In addition, experts from national patient self-help groups have been developing patient guidance based upon the recommendations for healthcare providers. The article describes background, methods and tools of the DM-CPG programme using the DM-CPG Method Report 2007.
Subject(s)
Delivery of Health Care/standards , National Health Programs/standards , Practice Guidelines as Topic , Humans , Physicians/standards , Quality Assurance, Health Care , Societies, MedicalABSTRACT
In this article, the authors of the ,,General Practitioners' Guideline for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Urinary Incontinence" describe the logical and procedural steps involved in the development process of this evidence-based GPs' guideline for the management of urinary incontinence. Specifically, the following factors have been identified as crucial for a successful primary care guideline development process: The work group (authors) should comply in size with current recommendations for successful project work teams. It is recommended that authors should belong to opposing ends of the spectrum of practical versus theoretical medicine. We argue that the integration of both practical experience and theoretical knowledge/research experience be combined in order to collate guideline recommendations that are firmly grounded in scientific evidence and both applicable and acceptable in everyday practice. Proper work on a guideline development project should only start after ensuring that the well-known theoretical requirements for sensible guidelines are met, i.e. the problem in our special focus should be widespread or of considerable economic/public health importance, be amenable to proper medical intervention, and some quality issue regarding the current handling of this problem should have been demonstrated. Subsequently, a clear logical analysis of the problem's inherent functional/logical/practical subdivisions has to be conducted. Each author is then allocated his or her fair share of the work. The next step is considered to be extremely important and consists of discovering one's "illusive correlation", i.e. inherent ideas one has on the subject without being aware of one's own bias. The proposed "trick" now consists of making the implicit bias an explicit fact in the further guideline development process. The remaining work steps build on the integration of one's preformed ideas with current, published opinion from standard textbooks, as well as existing guidelines and non-guideline recommendations on the subject; plus taking into account the practical experience gathered from interviews and "on-location-visits". This integration process is performed within a structured framework to facilitate objectivity and transparency of the entire guideline.
Subject(s)
Family Practice/standards , Physicians, Family , Practice Guidelines as Topic/standards , Evidence-Based Medicine/standards , Germany , Humans , Urinary Incontinence/diagnosis , Urinary Incontinence/therapyABSTRACT
In this article, the authors of the "General Practitioners' Guideline to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Urinary Incontinence" describe the historical development of this evidence-based GPs' guideline for the management of urinary incontinence. The guideline's history is focused around the following points: 1. reasons for choosing the subject matter, 2. material and personnel expenses of the development process, 3. specific considerations regarding recommendations that will be applied to the primary care setting. The whole guideline project was based on the hypothesis that developing and implementing a clinical guideline for general practitioners in Germany would lead to better detection and treatment of cases of urinary incontinence. Hopefully, the guideline will contribute to a better quality of life of the persons affected and to a reduced number of "silent sufferers". Specifically, the targets to be addressed include the following: identifying and providing treatment to previously undiscovered sufferers of urinary incontinence implementing a universal standard of scientifically approved diagnostic strategies in family physician's offices enhancing the therapeutic options available to patients suffering from urinary incontinence in the community aiding primary care physicians with the diagnosis and treatment of people with urinary incontinence improving the interprofessional relationships with other carers in the field of urinary incontinence. The authors wish to thank the German Cochrane Centre and the Deutsche Krankenversicherung for organising the Cochrane Prize and thus promoting guideline development.
