gms | German Medical Science

Background: The successful implementation of guidelines strongly depends on its comprehensibility among its users. Therefore a standardized guideline (GL) language is useful. Wording of German therapeutic recommendations is not yet evaluated.

Objective: The overall aim is to establish a set of standard phrases for all German guidelines.

Methods: Physicians are asked for their perceived grade of obligation of commonly used phrases in German guidelines during an online survey using a visual analogue scale. A pilot study has already been performed. A large scale review is currently under way. Participants are physicians of selected professional societies (depending on number of members, number of published guidelines per society).

Results: The pilot study showed 1) a large variation in the perception of obligation of frequently selected wordings such as “soll” and “sollte” and 2) that all negative statements have a wider range of interpretation and are prone to be misunderstood (in terms of skipping the word “nicht”). Results of the current online survey will be presented and discussed.

Discussion: The pilot study revealed that certain wordings in guidelines can frequently not be separated accurately - including those terms suggested by the AWMF - Based on the findings of the presented survey a clear terminology will be suggested to standardize German guideline recommendations.

Implications: A set of clear wordings might be a useful tool for future guideline development.