Pediatric clinical practice guidelines in China: still a long way to go

Excerpt

Clinical practice guidelines provide optimal patient care recommendations, which are important tools for promoting the equality of health care services and saving healthcare resources in China [1]. The evidence-based clinical guidelines are specific to clinical problems and are developed through systematic reviewing to help clinicians and patients make appropriate decisions. Chen et al. revealed several limitations in adoption and adaptation of Chinese Guidelines including (1) rarely using systematic review to support recommendations, (2) lacking information in conflict of interest, and (3) low adherence rate of clinicians to guidelines [1]. The overall quality of China’s clinical guidelines still needs improvement compared with the European and American guidelines. China currently lacks capacity for evidence-based guideline development and coordination by a central agency. Most Chinese guideline users rely on recommendations developed by professional groups that lack demonstration of transparency, including conflict of interest management and evidence synthesis, and quality. Taking into account the development of the guidelines at the national level, the Standards Division of the National Health Commission of China commissioned the Evidence-Based Medical Center of Fudan University to develop China’s guideline evaluation criteria in 2017. Chinese experts are expected to familiarize themselves with the rules for developing guidelines, and use evidence-based medicine methods to standardize the development of high-quality guidelines. I think that the quality of the clinical guidelines will be improved in the near future. …