Procedures and requirements for meeting the NHMRC standard for guidelines
NHMRC has a statutory responsibility to provide leadership in the development of high-quality clinical practice guidelines in Australia. Under Section 14A of the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 19921, NHMRC may approve clinical practice guidelines developed by other organisations.
As part of this role, NHMRC published the 2011 Procedures and Requirements for Meeting NHMRC Standards for Clinical Practice Guidelines (Procedures and Requirements) outlining what guideline developers need to do to receive NHMRC approval of their guideline. In 2016 NHMRC issued The 2016 NHMRC Standards for Guidelines (NHMRC Standards) to help ensure guidelines developed in Australia are of high-quality, developed in a transparent way and make clear recommendations.
The NHMRC Guidelines for Guidelines handbook, provides practical advice to guideline developers on how to develop high quality guidelines that meet NHMRC Standards. There are also other resources available to support high quality guideline development that NHMRC recommends using. The Procedures and Requirements draw on Australian and international best practice in evidence review and guideline development and incorporate dimensions from internationally validated guideline appraisal instruments.
The purpose of the Procedures and Requirements is to:
- outline the procedures for NHMRC approval of clinical practice guidelines
- set out the requirements that must be met in the preparation of clinical practice guidelines to ensure that the NHMRC Standards are met.