Development, Evaluation, and impLemenTation for guideline adaptation: a quality improvement protocol for the DELTA...

Area of Science:

• Clinical Practice Guidelines
• Health Equity
• Knowledge Translation

Background:

• Guideline adaptation is crucial for tailoring recommendations to local contexts and improving global health equity.
• Current understanding of guideline adaptation's utilization, procedures, and materials is limited, necessitating further research.
• This study addresses the need to systematically analyze and improve the process of adapting clinical practice guidelines.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically search and analyze current adapted clinical practice guidelines (CPGs).
• To evaluate the characteristics, utilization, and adaptation procedures of existing CPGs.
• To propose a unified framework and materials for guideline adaptation through the DELTA initiative.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Development, Evaluation, and impLemenTation for guideline Adaptation (DELTA) study protocol.
• Systematically searched for and extracted data on adapted CPGs, focusing on their characteristics, utilization, and adaptation procedures.
• Appraised adherence to adaptation frameworks and analyzed the advantages, limitations, and applications of current methods.

Main Results:

• Identified key characteristics, utilization patterns, and adaptation procedures of current adapted CPGs.
• Assessed the rigor with which existing adapted CPGs followed established adaptation frameworks.
• Analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, and contextual applicability of various guideline adaptation methods.

Conclusions:

• Guideline adaptation is an effective strategy for guiding local clinical practice but faces significant challenges.
• The proposed DELTA study, series, and system offer a structured approach to address these challenges.
• This initiative aims to enhance the acceptability, applicability, and implementation of guideline adaptation in clinical practice.