Article type
Abstract
Background:
The development of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) is a complex process. Guideline developers would benefit from training to facilitate well-informed and cost-conscious decision-making in health care, aiding them in successfully developing CPGs with multidisciplinary panels.
Objective:
This study aimed to identify the experiences and educational needs of CPG developers, with attention to cost-conscious care and patient perspective.
Methods:
Members of various health professional backgrounds, patient organizations, and guideline developing organizations in the Netherlands answered a questionnaire with open- and close-ended questions about their experiences with CPG development and their educational needs (October-December 2022). Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis, and descriptive statistics were applied to quantitative data.
Results:
Participants (n = 271) described various tasks they performed during CPG development. Some tasks were role specific, whereas others had overlap between roles. Experience, guidance, and training influenced the participants’ feeling of preparedness for their tasks. General guideline panel members (eg, health care professionals) and, within that group, patient representatives most often indicated they felt unprepared.
About half of the participants included economic considerations in their CPG (46%); however, there was no uniform approach. The patient perspective was included by 89% of the participants, also in varying manners. Overall, participants indicated the importance of cost considerations in CPG development (training) to ensure a future-proof health care system.
Participants expressed the need for content-related training, including the CPG development methodology, eg, the literature analysis. They also raised the importance of process-related topics in training, such as the inclusion of different perspectives, task division, and responsibilities during CPG development.
Conclusions:
This questionnaire yielded different perspectives on CPG development training needs. Results highlight a need for CPG development training to extend beyond only content-related topics but also address process-related topics to optimize support of CPG developers. Attention to economic considerations during CPG development (training) is viewed as valuable to create future-proof CPGs. Additionally, training should consider the different roles during CPG development, which have varying and overlapping responsibilities. These findings form the basis for the development of CPG development training for panel members with the help of the so-called RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) framework.
The development of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) is a complex process. Guideline developers would benefit from training to facilitate well-informed and cost-conscious decision-making in health care, aiding them in successfully developing CPGs with multidisciplinary panels.
Objective:
This study aimed to identify the experiences and educational needs of CPG developers, with attention to cost-conscious care and patient perspective.
Methods:
Members of various health professional backgrounds, patient organizations, and guideline developing organizations in the Netherlands answered a questionnaire with open- and close-ended questions about their experiences with CPG development and their educational needs (October-December 2022). Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis, and descriptive statistics were applied to quantitative data.
Results:
Participants (n = 271) described various tasks they performed during CPG development. Some tasks were role specific, whereas others had overlap between roles. Experience, guidance, and training influenced the participants’ feeling of preparedness for their tasks. General guideline panel members (eg, health care professionals) and, within that group, patient representatives most often indicated they felt unprepared.
About half of the participants included economic considerations in their CPG (46%); however, there was no uniform approach. The patient perspective was included by 89% of the participants, also in varying manners. Overall, participants indicated the importance of cost considerations in CPG development (training) to ensure a future-proof health care system.
Participants expressed the need for content-related training, including the CPG development methodology, eg, the literature analysis. They also raised the importance of process-related topics in training, such as the inclusion of different perspectives, task division, and responsibilities during CPG development.
Conclusions:
This questionnaire yielded different perspectives on CPG development training needs. Results highlight a need for CPG development training to extend beyond only content-related topics but also address process-related topics to optimize support of CPG developers. Attention to economic considerations during CPG development (training) is viewed as valuable to create future-proof CPGs. Additionally, training should consider the different roles during CPG development, which have varying and overlapping responsibilities. These findings form the basis for the development of CPG development training for panel members with the help of the so-called RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) framework.