LYMEPOLICYWONK: IDSA Lyme Guidelines—A Poster Child for Guidelines Reform? Institute of Medicine Says IDSA Lyme Guidelines Highlight Need for Change
Excerpted from CALDA ( Posted: 03/29/2011 )
I was surprised. I had just settled into my long read of the 217 page new Institute of Medicine report on guideline reform (Clinical Practice Guidelines, We Can Trust, 2010), when the report took an amazing left turn. No, this is not the IOM report on Lyme disease (no telling when that comes out). This is the one on the need for medical guidelines reform in general—not just for Lyme disease. The IOM points to the Connecticut Attorney General investigation into the IDSA Lyme guidelines and says: “This case highlights the need for standardization and transparency in all aspects of systemic data collection and review, committee administration, and guideline development, so that questions about these issues do not detract from the science. [Guideline developers]. . . must be aware of the many, varied observers who will consider their development processes, particularly when their recommendations are likely to be controversial.” That’s a public slap on the wrist to the IDSA and it matters.
For the complete article: http://www.lymedisease.org/news/lymepolicywonk/670.html
Lyme Handbook 