POLICY REGARDING EVALUATION OF CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES NIH GUIDE, Volume 22, Number 26, July 23, 1993 P.T. 34 Keywords: Health Services Delivery Agency for Health Care Policy and Research This notice provides the policy of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) regarding the award of grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts for the evaluation of clinical practice guidelines. This policy is designed to protect the integrity of AHCPR-supported guidelines by preventing, to the extent possible, the perception of bias or lack of objectivity in AHCPR grant and contract activities relevant to such guidelines. As part of its legislative mandate, AHCPR arranges for the development and periodic updating of clinical practice guidelines, medical review criteria, standards of quality, and performance measures. The guidelines are to assist health care providers, consumers, payers, and policy makers in making decisions on how diseases, disorders, and other health conditions can be most effectively and appropriately prevented, diagnosed, treated, and managed. These guidelines may be developed by panels of health care experts and consumers or by contractors assisted by panels of experts and consumers. The AHCPR will consider research grant applications and contract proposals to evaluate clinical practice guidelines. However, the AHCPR generally will not award grants or recommend award of contracts to evaluate AHCPR-supported clinical practice guidelines until the guideline has been in the public domain for three months. For purposes of this policy, evaluation of a clinical practice guideline involves empirical assessment of the direct effects of the guideline on clinical practice patterns, on patient outcomes, or on the costs of health care. If a current or former chair, member, consultant, or contractor staff of an AHCPR-supported practice guideline panel is involved in seeking a grant or contract to evaluate an AHCPR guideline that the individual helped develop, this prior relationship must be disclosed in the grant application or contract proposal. The Administrator of the AHCPR generally will not make an award to that applicant or recommend award to that offeror because of the possible perception of bias or lack of objectivity. This policy may be waived where the Administrator determines that the interests of scientific progress or public health outweigh the possibility of an applicant/proposal being perceived as biased or lacking objectivity. If the AHCPR determines that an application or proposal does not disclose a prior relationship to the guideline development process, the AHCPR will administratively withdraw the application or proposal from consideration for funding. INQUIRIES Questions regarding AHCPR's Policy on Award of Grants and Contracts for Evaluation of Clinical Practice Guidelines may be directed to: Office of the Administrator Agency for Health Care Policy and Research 2101 E. Jefferson Street, Suite 600 Rockville, MD 20852 Telephone: (301) 227-6662 (through July 31) or (301) 594-6662 (effective after August 1) .
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