In recent posts, we have introduced the concept of rapid recommendations as well as how developers of these recommendations at the World Health Organization (WHO) perceive facilitators and barriers to this process. This information was gathered as part of a published series on rapid guidance in 2018.
In the final part of the series, Morgan and colleagues propose an extension of the G-I-N/McMaster Checklist for Guideline Development aimed at those producing rapid guidelines. Comprising 21 discrete guideline principles that align with the original Guideline Development Checklist, the checklist is a tool for developers to take stock of the resources available for their rapid guideline development goals and identify areas in need of improvement. Important considerations include:
· Make use of virtual meetings (Principle 7) and pre-meeting voting (Principle 15) to expedite the drafting of recommendations.
· If possible, limit guideline panel composition to those not reporting financial COIs, or if not possible to provide necessary topic expertise, transparently declare any modifications of existing COI policies for the topic at hand (Principle 9).
· Limiting the number of PICOs (Principle 10) and limiting the assessment of outcomes to only those deemed critical (Principle 11).
· Consider ways to facilitate systematic review stage, such as updating existing reviews, developing rapid reviews, or tailoring search criteria to a smaller scope (Principle 13)
· Arrange for external reviewers early on in the process so that they are quickly deployed when a draft is available for review (Principle 18).
The full checklist extension for rapid guidelines can be viewed here.
Morgan, R.L., Florez, I., Falavigna, M. et al. Development of rapid guidelines: 3. GIN-McMaster Guideline Development Checklist extension for rapid recommendations. Health Res Policy Sys 16, 63 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-018-0330-0
Manuscript available at the publisher's website here.
