The background and status of the quality assessment instruments of clinical trials, and several frequently used instruments both domesticly and abroad were introduced, and the problems in this field were discussed.
Objective To update and form an instrument for evaluating clinical applicability of guidelines (version 1.0). Methods We updated the systematic review of global guideline clinical applicability evaluation instruments to form the initial item list and carried out Delphi expert consultation to establish the instrument for evaluating clinical applicability of guidelines (version 2.0). Results The general structure of version 2.0 was consistent with that of version 1.0, which included 12 evaluation items belonging to five domains covering accessibility, readability, acceptability, feasibility, and an overall evaluation. Moreover, some new items were added in version 2.0, such as "The guideline does not provide supporting tools or resources and the operation is poor", "After the guideline implementation, the expected effects of diagnosis and treatment do not be achieved", " Medical staff in your workplace believe that the guideline is not necessary because they have sufficient medical experience, etc.", "Lack of authority of the organizations and personnel that developed the guideline" and "Medical staff in your workplace are reluctant to change the original medical practice". Conclusion This study updated and formed an instrument for evaluating clinical applicability of guidelines (version 2.0), which is able to better assess the applicability of new clinical guidelines and greatly promote more appropriate guidelines into practice.
The instrument for evaluating clinical applicability of guidelines (version 2.0) is designed to evaluate the clinical applicability of guidelines quantitatively. It is helpful to select guidelines with high clinical applicability and provide suggestions for revision. The evaluators are consistent with the target users of guidelines. The instrument consists of basic information, evaluation items and scoring scheme. The evaluation items are related to accessibility, readability, acceptability, feasibility and overall evaluation. Therefore, this article provides a detailed interpretation of the instrument and references for future users.