Da. Kahn et al., CONSENSUS METHODS IN PRACTICE GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT - A REVIEW AND DESCRIPTION OF A NEW METHOD, Psychopharmacology bulletin, 33(4), 1997, pp. 631-639
Practice guidelines are an increasingly important means of conveying t
o practitioners and administrators the most appropriate methods of tre
ating patients. Although the development of practice guidelines relies
on scientific evidence, the consensus of expert opinion is an importa
nt ingredient, particularly in many key areas of clinical decision mak
ing that are insufficiently informed by experimental data. The authors
review current methods in the assessment of expert opinion for practi
ce guideline development and the problem of the lack of quantification
. A new method is presented for quantification of expert opinion on su
rveys, and the development of expert consensus practice guidelines fro
m the resulting data.