Memory Joggers: Worksheet for Practice Guidelines
First, look at the title and do a brief scan of the guideline for Relevance and Validity:
1. Scan for Relevance
Is this guideline worth taking the time to read?
A. Does the guideline address problems that are common to your practice and have feasible interventions?
Yes (Go on) No (stop)
2. Scan for Validity
B. Does the guideline contain a balance sheet, evidence tables, or indications of the strength of the supporting evidence?
Yes (Go on) No (stop)
Next, review each individual recommendation in more detail:
3. Reassess Relevance:
C. Is the recommendation based on an outcome that patients would care about? (Be careful to avoid results that require extrapolation to an outcome that truly matters to patients)
Yes (Go on) No (move on to the next recommendation)
D. Will this information, if true, require you to change your current practice?
Yes (Go on) No (move on to the next recommendation)
If any recommendation passes all of these tests, then continued assessment of the guideline is mandatory - flaws are common; fatal flaws are arresting
4. Reassess Validity
E. Was an explicit and sensible process used to identify, select, and combine evidence?
Yes No (stop)
F. Was an explicit and sensible process used to consider the relative value of different outcomes?
Yes No
G. Is the guideline likely to account for recent developments?
Yes No
H. Has the guideline been subjected to peer review and testing?
Yes No
Revision 1996: Adapted from Worksheets of the Information Mastery Working Group and from material developed at McMaster University. (JAMA 1995; 275; 570-4, 1630-2.) |
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