Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • The Issue in Brief
    • Past Issues in Brief
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers
    • Current Opportunities
    • Job Board
  • COVID-19
    • Preprint Collection
    • Casenotes Blog

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Annals of Family Medicine
  • My alerts
Annals of Family Medicine

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • The Issue in Brief
    • Past Issues in Brief
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers
    • Current Opportunities
    • Job Board
  • COVID-19
    • Preprint Collection
    • Casenotes Blog
  • Follow annalsfm on Twitter
  • Visit annalsfm on Facebook
Research ArticleOriginal Research

Developing a Clinician Friendly Tool to Identify Useful Clinical Practice Guidelines: G-TRUST

Allen F. Shaughnessy, Akansha Vaswani, Bonnie K. Andrews, Deborah R. Erlich, Frank D’Amico, Joel Lexchin and Lisa Cosgrove
The Annals of Family Medicine September 2017, 15 (5) 413-418; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2119
Allen F. Shaughnessy
1Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: Allen.Shaughnessy@tufts.edu
Akansha Vaswani
2Department of Counseling and School Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Bonnie K. Andrews
2Department of Counseling and School Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Deborah R. Erlich
1Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Frank D’Amico
3McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Joel Lexchin
4School of Health Policy and Management, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Lisa Cosgrove
2Department of Counseling and School Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

BACKGROUND Clinicians are faced with a plethora of guidelines. To rate guidelines, they can select from a number of evaluation tools, most of which are long and difficult to apply. The goal of this project was to develop a simple, easy-to-use checklist for clinicians to use to identify trustworthy, relevant, and useful practice guidelines, the Guideline Trustworthiness, Relevance, and Utility Scoring Tool (G-TRUST).

METHODS A modified Delphi process was used to obtain consensus of experts and guideline developers regarding a checklist of items and their relative impact on guideline quality. We conducted 4 rounds of sampling to refine wording, add and subtract items, and develop a scoring system. Multiple attribute utility analysis was used to develop a weighted utility score for each item to determine scoring.

RESULTS Twenty-two experts in evidence-based medicine, 17 developers of high-quality guidelines, and 1 consumer representative participated. In rounds 1 and 2, items were rewritten or dropped, and 2 items were added. In round 3, weighted scores were calculated from rankings and relative weights assigned by the expert panel. In the last round, more than 75% of experts indicated 3 of the 8 checklist items to be major indicators of guideline usefulness and, using the AGREE tool as a reference standard, a scoring system was developed to identify guidelines as useful, may not be useful, and not useful.

CONCLUSION The 8-item G-TRUST is potentially helpful as a tool for clinicians to identify useful guidelines. Further research will focus on its reliability when used by clinicians.

  • practice guidelines as topic
  • quality assurance
  • health care/standards
  • benchmarking

Footnotes

  • Conflicts of interest: A.F.S., J.L., and L.C. have published research evaluating clinical practice guidelines and a commentary advocating for more rigorous oversight of guideline development and dissemination.

  • Funding support: The research included in this article was supported by an RO3 grant funded by the Association for Healthcare Research and Quality (Grant No. R03HS022940-01A1).

  • Previous presentation: Guideline International Network Scientific Programme; August 20, 2015; Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

  • Supplementary materials: Available at http://www.AnnFamMed.org/content/15/5/413/suppl/DC1/.

  • Received for publication October 24, 2016.
  • Revision received February 6, 2017.
  • Accepted for publication March 16, 2017.
  • © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

The Annals of Family Medicine: 15 (5)
The Annals of Family Medicine
Vol. 15, Issue 5
September/October 2017
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
  • In Brief
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Annals of Family Medicine.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Developing a Clinician Friendly Tool to Identify Useful Clinical Practice Guidelines: G-TRUST
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Annals of Family Medicine
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Annals of Family Medicine web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
3 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
Developing a Clinician Friendly Tool to Identify Useful Clinical Practice Guidelines: G-TRUST
Allen F. Shaughnessy, Akansha Vaswani, Bonnie K. Andrews, Deborah R. Erlich, Frank D’Amico, Joel Lexchin, Lisa Cosgrove
The Annals of Family Medicine Sep 2017, 15 (5) 413-418; DOI: 10.1370/afm.2119

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Get Permissions
Share
Developing a Clinician Friendly Tool to Identify Useful Clinical Practice Guidelines: G-TRUST
Allen F. Shaughnessy, Akansha Vaswani, Bonnie K. Andrews, Deborah R. Erlich, Frank D’Amico, Joel Lexchin, Lisa Cosgrove
The Annals of Family Medicine Sep 2017, 15 (5) 413-418; DOI: 10.1370/afm.2119
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • INTRODUCTION
    • METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • Acknowledgement
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • Managing conflicts of interest in the development of health guidelines
  • Choisir les guides de pratique clinique a utiliser
  • Choosing guidelines to use in your practice
  • When is a guideline not a guideline? The devil is in the details
  • From Authority- to Evidence-Based Medicine: Are Clinical Practice Guidelines Moving us Forward or Backward?
  • In This Issue: Tools to Help Focus on What is Valuable
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • App-Based Treatment in Primary Care for Urinary Incontinence: A Pragmatic, Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Perspectives of US Youth During Initial Month of the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Scaling Up Patient-Centered Interdisciplinary Care for Multimorbidity: A Pragmatic Mixed-Methods Randomized Controlled Trial
Show more Original Research

Similar Articles

Subjects

  • Methods:
    • Mixed methods
  • Other research types:
    • Health policy
  • Other topics:
    • Clinical practice guidelines
    • Research capacity building

Keywords

  • practice guidelines as topic
  • quality assurance
  • health care/standards
  • benchmarking

Content

  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Past Issues in Brief
  • Articles by Type
  • Articles by Subject
  • Supplements
  • Online First

Info for

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Media
  • Job Seekers

Engage

  • E-mail Alerts
  • e-Letters (Comments)
  • RSS
  • Journal Club
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Subscribe
  • Family Medicine Careers

About

  • About Us
  • Editorial Board & Staff
  • Sponsoring Organizations
  • Copyrights & Permissions
  • Contact Us
  • eLetter/Comments Policy

© 2021 Annals of Family Medicine