E-drug: Evidence based guidelines (cont'd)
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Dear E-druggers,
You will be interested and excited to know that here in Ghana, the
Ghana National Drug Programme (GNDP) is coordinating on behalf of
the Ministry of Health a major revision of the standard treatment
guidelines (STG's). As part of that review process we are introducing
an evidence base to the guidelines.
The project is being lead by Prof. David Ofori-Adjei, who is part of the
GNDP team, and we have taken the route of using an expert panel to
review the STG's, but with the addition of an overlay of evidence
base. There is not a huge body of research evidence in Ghana or West
Africa, but we are using the international standards such as Cochrane,
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (delighted to see a vote for
Scotland, just a pity about the rugby results!), and National Guidelines
where we have access (eg Canadian). By applying these to the panel
deliberations we can identify areas for closer consideration and also
areas where we may need to target more literature search or more
research to provide evidence that is missing. The final publication will
include an indication of the strength of the recommendation alongside
the treatment choice.
The real strength, however, will be seen in future years as people
challenge the guidelines and wish to add new drugs, etc. There is a
clear need for the evidence of efficacy, etc to be provided before any
drug can be considered for inclusion, or for any treatment process to
be changed. The other interesting part of the guidelines is their style.
For each condition identified in the guideline the objectives of
treatment are identified. In this way we can build up the logic or
rational for treatment and empower practitioners when not to treat as
well as how to treat.
The guideline are due to be published in June 2000. We are on
schedule, so watch this space.
Tim Dodd
Training Advisor
Ghana National Drugs Programme
E-mail: Cath_and_Tim_Dodd@compuserve.com
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