Developing prehospital clinical practice guidelines for resource limited settings : why re-invent the wheel?
Date
2018-02-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Objectives: Methods on developing new (de novo) clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have received substantial attention. However, the volume of literature is not matched by research into alternative methods of CPG development using existing CPG documents—a specific issue for guideline development groups in low- and middle-income countries. We report on how we developed a context specific prehospital CPG using an alternative guideline development method. Difficulties experienced and lessons learnt in applying existing global guidelines’ recommendations to a national context are highlighted.
Results: The project produced the first emergency care CPG for prehospital providers in Africa. It included > 270 CPGs and produced over 1000 recommendations for prehospital emergency care. We encountered various difficulties, including (1) applicability issues: few pre-hospital CPGs applicable to Africa, (2) evidence synthesis: heterogeneous levels of evidence classifications and (3) guideline quality. Learning points included (1) focusing on key CPGs and evidence mapping, (2) searching other resources for CPGs, (3) broad representation on CPG advisory boards and (4) transparency and knowledge translation. Re-inventing the wheel to produce CPGs is not always feasible. We hope this paper will encourage further projects to use existing CPGs in developing guidance to improve patient care in resource-limited settings.
Description
CITATION: McCaul, M., et al. 2018. Developing prehospital clinical practice guidelines for resource limited settings : why re-invent the wheel?. BMC Research Notes, 11:97, doi:10.1186/s13104-018-3210-3.
The original publication is available at https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.
The original publication is available at https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.
Keywords
Emergency medicine -- Planning -- Developing countries, Medical protocols -- Planning -- Developing countries, Emergency medical services -- Developing countries
Citation
McCaul, M., et al. 2018. Developing prehospital clinical practice guidelines for resource limited settings : why re-invent the wheel?. BMC Research Notes, 11:97, doi:10.1186/s13104-018-3210-3