Our first post!

February 8, 2012 · 6 Comment s

 

Welcome to the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) guidelines blog. Our goals of this blog are to provide you with insight into the AAN systematic review and clinical practice guideline development processes and to fill a gap in communication within the guideline development community. We are providing this blog as a free public resource that allows physicians, patients, third-party payers, and others interested in health care to learn more about systematic review and guideline development, dissemination and outreach offerings, and free tools and resources to incorporate into your systematic review and guideline development processes. Over time, we’ll be providing tools the AAN uses to develop systematic reviews and guidelines; detailed descriptions of our processes from the perspectives of AAN staff, the AAN evidence-based medicine methodologist, and volunteer guideline authors; and lessons learned throughout the various phases of development.

 

Finally, let us know what you are looking for. While we realize this blog won’t be all things to all readers, we will strive to address your areas of interest. We also understand that, although the knowledge and experience we’ve gained in systematic review and guideline development is valuable, we may not be able to address all questions and concerns you may have. The development process must be tailored to suit the needs and circumstances of a given organization. Nonetheless, we aim to provide helpful insights regardless of any factors that may limit their usefulness. We look forward to hosting a public platform to engage in conversation!

 

Tags: American Academy of Neurology · evidence-based medicine · guideline · systematic review

6 response s so far ↓

  • 1 Marguerite Koster // Feb 9, 2012 at 7:59 PM

    Congrats on the new blog -- great contribution to the EBM community.
  • 2 Joel Harder // Feb 10, 2012 at 12:23 PM

    How do you train an evidence-based medicine methodologist and define their role?
  • 3 Tom Getchius // Feb 15, 2012 at 8:53 AM

    Marguerite - thanks very much for the compliments.

    Joel - we've been very fortunate that the methodologist we contract with has been writing guidelines for AAN since 1995. He's been influential in helping to refine the classification schemes AAN uses to rate the quality of the studies we review to develop the guidelines. I have future posts in the works regarding our thoughts of training an EBM methodologist and more specifics in defining our current methodologist's role.
  • 4 Karie Rosolowski // Feb 28, 2012 at 12:03 PM

    The CMSS has proposed that guideline developers devlop/define criteria for determining when a COI is modest or significant. The following is from the CMSS draft proposal:

    "Criteria for determining relevance if and when a COI is relevant, material or pertinent to the topic of the writing panel or Guideline Development Group; Criteria for determing level if and when a COI is
    modest or significant"

    This recommendation is a bit vague and the monetary value associated with a "modest" or "significant" COI may vary significantly from one medical specialty to another. Is anyone aware of any societies/ organizations that have a formal COI policy that includes definitions for a modest or significant COI?

    Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
  • 5 Tom Getchius // Feb 28, 2012 at 1:31 PM

    Hi Karie. Thank you for your comment and your inquiry. I can only speak for AAN regarding the disclosure but am eager, as you are, to learn how other societies try to define modest or significant. Earlier in my time at AAN, there were three tiers of dollar amounts, though we didn't label them as small, moderate, or significant. The amounts were < $10K, between $10K to $25K, and above $25K. However, we've updated our form to be consistent with our journal, Neurology(R) which requires disclosure for the past 24 months of any dollar amount, with the exception of gifts under $500. You can access a sample Neurology(R) disclosure form at this link. http://www.neurology.org/site/misc/DisclosureFormDummyForRef.pdf
  • 6 Karie Rosolowski // Mar 2, 2012 at 11:30 AM

    Tom---thank you for the information.

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