gms | German Medical Science

Background: In March 2011, the Institute of Medicine released a consensus report titled 'Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust'. The report highlighted eight standards that epitomized trustworthy guidelines and included calls for greater consumer and public involvement in the guideline development process.

Context: Our organization works to advance the art, science, and ethical practice of our specialty through education, research, and lifelong learning. To support our mission, we have been developing evidence based clinical practice guidelines since 2006 and have increasingly sought the input of consumers and the public during our guideline development process.

Description of best practice: Our organization has developed a collaborative relationship with a coalition of consumer advocacy groups to incorporate educated consumers, often familiar with guideline development methodology, as participants on our guideline development groups. We now, at a minimum, have two consumer representatives participate on each of our guideline development groups. Additionally, in response to the IOM report, we have now begun to make a final draft of each guideline available for public comment. We believe the public comment period promotes greater transparency and in our experience has provided great insight and signaled improvements to each guideline.

Lessons for guideline developers, adaptors, implementers, and/or users: Guideline developers will learn how and when to involve consumers and the public in the guideline development process. In addition, this poster will highlight the important role of the patients' perspective and preferences in a guideline's development.