Stakeholder involvement

Multidisciplinary participation in guideline development is essential to ensure proper evaluation and interpretation of specialty-specific evidence, relevance to the realities of everyday practice, and ownership and cooperation of all stakeholder groups: "Unless a guideline accurately reflects the routine working practices of most doctors it will act only as a gold standard to be admired" (Farmer, BMJ 1993; 307: 313-7). All potential end users of the guideline should therefore be represented. The group should also be geographically representative of the nation/region for which the guideline is being developed. Patients or their representatives should also be involved in the guideline development process.