title: Developing clinical practice guidelines for epilepsy: A report from the ILAE Epilepsy Guidelines Working Group.
abstract: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) contain evidence-based recommendations to guide clinical care, policy development, and quality of care improvement. A recent systematic review of epilepsy guidelines identified considerable variability in the quality of available guidelines. Although excellent frameworks for CPG development exist, processes are not followed uniformly internationally, and resources to develop CPGs may be limited in certain settings. An International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) working group was charged with proposing methodology to guide the development of future epilepsy-specific CPGs. A comprehensive literature search (1985-2014) identified articles related to CPG development and handbooks. Guideline handbooks were included if they were publicly available, and if their methodology had been used to develop CPGs. The working group's expertise also informed the creation of methodologies and processes to develop future CPGs for the ILAE. Five handbooks from North America (American Academy of Neurology), Europe (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network & National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), Australia (National Health and Medical Research Council), World Health Organization (WHO), and additional references were identified to produce evidence-based, consensus-driven methodology for development of epilepsy-specific CPGs. Key components of CPG development include the following: identifying the topic and defining the scope; establishing a working group; identifying and evaluating the evidence; formulating recommendations and determining strength of recommendations; obtaining peer reviews; dissemination, implementation, and auditing; and updating and retiring the CPG. A practical handbook and toolkit was developed. The resulting CPG development toolkit should facilitate the development of high-quality ILAE CPGs to improve the care of persons with epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.|Department of Community Health Sciences and O'Brien Institute for Public Health, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Khara M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Sauro
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.|Department of Community Health Sciences and O'Brien Institute for Public Health, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wiebe
authors.affiliation: Unit of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pavia Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Perucca
authors.affiliation: NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, New York, New York, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: French
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics Kings Mill Hospital, Sutton in Ashfield, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dunkley
authors.affiliation: Alemana Clinic of Santiago, Faculty of Medicine Clinic Alemana, University of Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Marinis
authors.affiliation: Consultant Paediatric Neurologist Tayside Children's Hospital, Dundee, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kirkpatrick
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.|Department of Community Health Sciences and O'Brien Institute for Public Health, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jetté
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees / Q000458:organization & administration; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000628:therapy*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012955:Societies, Medical
keywords: Evidence-based medicine; Guideline development; Knowledge to action; Knowledge translation; Practice parameters