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The Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF) established a national guideline-programme respecting the specific conditions of the German health-care system as well as fulfilling the demands of clinical research. It consists of a three-level concept for guideline development and an implementation system. The three-level concept assumes a continuous process of development and quality improvement of guidelines. At level three, guidelines have to fulfill five criteria of systematic development: consensus (presupposed application of formal techniques and participation of all relevant stakeholders), logical analysis (clinical algorithms), evidence (based on best available evidence derived from comprehensive, systematic reviews and linking all recommendations explicitly to the evidence), decision analysis and outcome analysis (using epidemiologic, effectiveness, pharmacologic, psychometric, economic studies and qualitative methods for identifying the true endpoint). The implementation system is based on four components: definite guideline groups within the scientific societies, conceptualised quality improvement of guidelines, continuous medical education and systematic evaluation. The establishment of this system has induced a change: the process of developing top-level guidelines has become uniform and there is a strong trend towards quality improvement. 75 evidence- and consensus- based guidelines (level two and three) have already been published. The scientific medical societies have indicated their motivation to continue the program by formulating 75 prior conditions for which top-level guidelines shall be developed in the near future.