Development of a Web-based Application GUIDE to Support the Creation of Clinical Practice Guidelines

Abstract

 With the spread of the concept of EBM (Evidence-Based Medicine), EBM approach came to be incorporated into creation processes of clinical practice guidelines. Therefore, the number of steps of the guideline creation increased and the types and the number of documents associated with the guideline creation have increased. If we can use a Web-based application that supports the creation of clinical practice guidelines, we will be able to proceed with the work efficiently. We developed a web application, GUIDE, which assists in the creation of clinical practice guidelines. GUIDE is an application to help developing clinical practice guidelines in line with ‘Minds Handbook for Clinical Practice Guideline Development 2014’. The main features of GUIDE are as follows; 1) displaying the handbook on the Web, 2) providing document templates, 3) managing documents, 4) editing guidelines, and 5) gathering public comments. This paper reported overview of GUIDE, the results of test operation, and the future challenges of this application.