{"id":8257,"date":"2016-12-11T16:16:32","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T21:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=8257"},"modified":"2016-12-11T16:25:39","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T21:25:39","slug":"want-guidelines-got-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/want-guidelines-got-guidelines\/2016\/12\/11\/","title":{"rendered":"You Want Guidelines? We Got Guidelines!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""I'm<\/a>

“I’m a thoughtful ID doctor who writes guidelines.”<\/p><\/div>\n

About a million years ago — in other words, probably sometime during my\u00a0ID fellowship — I asked transplant ID guru Bob Rubin how various ID guidelines came together, including one on antifungal therapy he had just led.<\/p>\n

“You lock\u00a0a bunch of experts in a hotel conference room,” he said. “Provide them plenty of food and coffee. Then you hide the key until they come up with something, especially if there’s a deadline .”<\/p>\n

Having participated on a couple of guidelines committees, I can attest that the process has changed just a bit<\/em>\u00a0since Bob provided me that memorable story.\u00a0Conference calls, web-based presentations, and numerous shared documents with extensive “track changes”\u00a0peppered\u00a0throughout\u00a0now dominate the process, along with frequent reminders about grading both the strength of the recommendations and the quality\u00a0of evidence.<\/p>\n

And, since we’re ID doctors, we of course try to outdo each other in obsessive attention to detail — emphasis on obsessive.<\/em> While everyone makes a big noise about editing and shortening the final document, if that means eliminating one key<\/em> reference, tell that to its champion — especially if they authored or co-authored the paper. It’s going in!<\/p>\n

On the topic of guidelines, you might have noticed that the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has been on quite a roll over the past year. They’ve been churning out new guidelines at a blistering pace, often in collaboration with other medical societies. So here’s a look back on IDSA’s hard work over the past 12 months, each one highlighted with at least one notable and\/or interesting recommendation, and also (just for bragging rights) the number of references (all thoroughly read, no doubt):<\/p>\n