Browsing by Author "Ernstzen, D."

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    Building capacity in primary care rehabilitation clinical practice guidelines : a South African initiative
    (BioMed Central, 2018-09-29) Louw, Q.; Grimmer, K.; Dizon, J. M; Machingaidze, S.; Parker, H.; Ernstzen, D.
    Background: The large number of South Africans with disability who cannot access good quality rehabilitation presents a public health and human rights challenge. A cost-effective, efficient approach is required to address this. Implementation of high-quality, contextually relevant clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) could be a solution; however, this requires significant investment in innovative capacity-building. Methods: A qualitative descriptive national study was conducted to explore the perspectives of South African stakeholders in rehabilitation, regarding CPG capacity-building. Twenty rehabilitation professionals (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech language therapists, podiatrists, rehabilitation managers or directors) were interviewed. Transcribed interview data were analysed using a deductive content analysis approach, mapping findings to an international capacity-building framework to produce new knowledge. Results: Capacity-building is required in content, purpose and construction of locally relevant CPGs, as well as personal, workforce and systems capacity. Principles and strategies were derived to underpin implementation of CPGs that are user friendly, context specific, relevant to the needs of end-users, and achievable within available resources. Collaboration, networks and communication are required at national, provincial and regional level, within and between sectors. A central agency for CPG methods, writing, implementation and evaluation is indicated. Conclusion: South African rehabilitation can benefit from a multi-level CPG capacity-building focusing on performance, personal, workforce and systems issues.
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    Standardising evidence strength grading for recommendations from multiple clinical practice guidelines : a South African case study
    (BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2018-08-29) Grimmer, K.; Louw, Q.; Dizon, J. M.; van Niekerk, S. M.; Ernstzen, D.; Wiysonge, Charles S.
    Background: Significant resources are required to write de novo clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). There are many freely-available CPGs internationally, for many health conditions. Developing countries rarely have the resources for de novo CPGs, and there could be efficiencies in using CPGs developed elsewhere. This paper outlines a novel process developed and tested in a resource-constrained country (South Africa) to synthesise findings from multiple international CPGs on allied health (AH) stroke rehabilitation. Methods: Methodologists, policy-makers, content experts and consumers collaborated to describe the pathway of an ‘average’ stroke patient through the South African public healthcare system and pose questions about bestpractice stroke rehabilitation along this pathway. A comprehensive search identified international guidance documents published since January 2010. These were scanned for relevance to the South African AH stroke rehabilitation questions and critically appraised for methodological quality. Recommendations were extracted from guidance documents for each question. Strength of the body of evidence (SoBE) gradings underpinning recommendations were standardised, and composite recommendations were developed using qualitative synthesis. An algorithm was developed to guide assignment of overall SoBE gradings to composite recommendations. Results: Sixteen CPGs were identified, and all were included, as they answered different project questions differently. Methodological quality varied and was unrelated to currency. Seven clusters, outlining 20 composite recommendations were proposed (organise for best practice rehabilitation, operationalise strategies for best practice communication throughout the patient journey, admit to an acute hospital, refer to inpatient rehabilitation, action inpatient rehabilitation, discharge from inpatient rehabilitation and longer-term community-based rehabilitation). Conclusion: The methodological development process, tested by writing a South African AH stroke rehabilitation guideline from existing evidence sources, took 9 months. The process was efficient, collaborative, effective, rewarding and positive. Using the proposed methods, similar synthesis of existing evidence could be conducted in shorter time periods, in other resource-constrained countries, avoiding the need for expensive and time-consuming de novo CPG development.