title: Report on the International Society for Laboratory Hematology Survey on guidelines to support clinical hematology laboratory practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Given the importance of evidence-based guidelines in health care, we surveyed the laboratory hematology community to determine their opinions on guideline development and their experience and interest in developing clinical hematology laboratory practice guidelines.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted using an online survey, distributed to members of the International Society for Laboratory Hematology (ISLH) in 2015, with analysis of collected, anonymized responses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 245 individuals participated. Most worked in clinical and/or research laboratories (83%) or industry (11%). 42% felt there were gaps in current guidelines. The majority (58%) recommended that ISLH engages its membership in guideline development. Participants differed in their familiarity with, and use of, different organizations' guidelines. Participants felt it was important to follow best practice recommendations on guideline development, including engagement of experts, statement about conflict of interests and how they were managed, systematic review and grading evidence for recommendations, identifying recommendations lacking evidence or consensus, and public input and peer review of the guideline. Moreover, it was considered important to provide guidelines free of charge. Industry involvement in guidelines was considered less important.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The clinical laboratory hematology community has high expectations of laboratory practice guidelines that are consistent with recent recommendations on evidence-based guideline development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.|Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.|Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: C P M
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Hayward
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.|Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Moffat
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
authors.forename: T I
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Proytcheva
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iorio
mesh_terms: D064790:Clinical Laboratory Services; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D006405:Hematology / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000078329:Workforce
keywords: Practice guidelines; diagnostic assays; laboratory hematology; laboratory practice; practice recommendations