Results (
Thai) 2:
[Copy]Copied!
2.5 Flexibility and adaptability
Guidelines should provide a clear statement of the evidence but allow for flexibility and adaptability in implementation. Thus, they should:
• provide evidence relevant to different target populations, which may vary in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, diagnosis, disease severity, co-morbidity and social support;
• provide evidence relevant to different geographic and clinical settings;
• take into account resource benefits, costs and constraints; and
• offer a means of accommodating different consumer values and preferences.
2.6 Economic implications
Guideline developers should be mindful of the resources required for development and implementation of guidelines. Further, in adapting guidelines to accommodate local conditions account should be taken of the following:
• limited treatment options;
• variations in the available equipment;
• variations in the training, experience and skills of existing and incoming clinicians; and
• variations in the availability of staff—in terms of numbers and professions.
It is important that an economic appraisal be incorporated in guidelines. In many circumstances this may be useful in guiding clinical decisions about treatment options. There are three types of economic appraisal comparing two interventions, or one intervention against a placebo:
• a cost-minimisation analysis, in which the direct costs of the proposed intervention are compared, assuming equal efficacy but differences in side-effects, or on the basis of the use of different patterns of care that generate different costs;
• a cost-effectiveness analysis, in which the relative effectiveness (measured, for example, by a reduction in blood pressure or days of disability averted) and the relative direct costs of two interventions are compared using a ratio of marginal cost to marginal effectiveness (for example, cost per life-year gained or cost per day or disability averted); and
• a cost-utility analysis, in which the effectiveness measure derived in the cost- effectiveness analysis is weighted by the recipient’s quality of life resulting from each intervention (thus producing a measure such as marginal cost per quality-adjusted year of life gained).
Being translated, please wait..
