The GRADE approach for assessing new technologies as applied to apheresis devices in ulcerative colitis.

Background: In the last few years, a new non-pharmacological treatment, termed apheresis, has been developed to lessen the burden of ulcerative colitis (UC). Several methods can be used to establish treatment recommendations, but over the last decade an informal collaboration group of guideline developers, methodologists, and clinicians has developed a more sensible and transparent approach known as the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). GRADE has mainly been used in clinical practice guidelines and systematic reviews.

[Not Available].

Objective: Preparing clinical practice guidelines (CPG) is an expensive process requiring a great deal of time and the participation of numerous professionals with knowledge of methodology. But the use of higher-quality CPGs could make this process easier. The aim of this work was to evaluate the application of a composite development-adaptation-updating method for the development of the asthma CPG in the Basque Country Autonomous Community.

[Assessment of clinical practice guidelines evaluation. Scales and criteria].

Not only are there large number of guides, protocols and other support tools available for the clinical decision-making process in the Spanish National Health System, but there is also a major degree of variability among them, reflecting inconsistencies and low quality of those documents. This study is aimed at conducting all inventory of the Clinical Practice Guideline assessment scales and clinical analysis tools and to propose a scale or set of criteria for assessing the quality of the Clinical Practice Guidelines put out in Spain. A systematic search of critical evaluation scales was conducted.