Communicable E47: Drawing the line - the writing, reach, and limits of guidelines

In this third collaboration between SIDP’s Breakpoints and ESCMID’s Communicable podcasts, hosts Erin McCreary and Angela Huttner invite two veteran authors of guidelines and guidances, Pranita Tamma (Philadelphia, USA) and Benedikt Huttner (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland) [1-3]. Together, they deconstruct the complex landscape of developing and implementing guidelines into digestible components: they discuss why different organizations develop guidelines and what need they hope to fulfil, the framework including the GRADE methodology under which guidelines are written, and major barriers in the uptake of guidelines. The conversation also details the distinction between guideline and guidance as well as the art and science behind formulating recommendations or suggestions, with a few anecdotal cases sprinkled in from the panel.

This episode was edited by Kathryn Hostettler and Lacy Worden. It was peer reviewed for Breakpoints by Lacy Worden and for Communicable by Ljiljana Lukić of University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb, Croatia.

References

1. WHO handbook for guideline development, 2nd Edition
2. The WHO AWaRe (Access, Watch, Reserve) antibiotic book
3. IDSA 2024 Guidance on the Treatment of Antimicrobial Resistant Gram-Negative Infections

Further reading

• ESCMID AMR Guidelines, https://clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/retrieve/pii/S1198743X21006790
• GRADE working group, https://www.gradeworkinggroup.org/
• GRADE Book, https://book.gradepro.org/
• IDSA's intraabdominal guidelines, https://www.idsociety.org/practice-guideline/intra-abdominal-infections/
• ESCMID Manual for Clinical Practice Guidelines and Other Guidance Documents, https://www.escmid.org/guidelines-journals/guidelines/
• International Consensus Guidelines for the Optimal Use of the Polymyxins https://accpjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/phar.2209
• American Thoracic Society guidelines on community-acquired pneumonia, https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/rccm.202507-1692ST