Guidelines for guideline developers: a systematic review of grading systems for medical tests.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A variety of systems have been developed to grade evidence and develop recommendations based on the available evidence. However, development of guidelines for medical tests is especially challenging given the typical indirectness of the evidence; direct evidence of the effects of testing on patient important outcomes is usually absent. We compared grading systems for medical tests on how they use evidence in guideline development.

Methods

We used a systematic strategy to look for grading systems specific to medical tests in PubMed, professional guideline websites, via personal correspondence, and handsearching back references of key articles. Using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument as a starting point, we defined two sets o

SUBMITTER: Gopalakrishna G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3716938 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature