There are no up-to-date Australian guidelines for clinicians caring for people with diabetes.
Out-of-date guidelines risk potential suboptimal management and significant variation in care.
“In Australia, guidelines approved by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) are valid for 5 years from publication before they are considered outdated, following which they must be either updated or developed anew,” wrote the authors of a Perspective published online by the Medical Journal Australia.
The authors, led by Heath White, Senior Research Officer with Cochrane Australia also say, “Currently all but one of the NHRMC-approved diabetes clinical guidelines are outdated and have been rescinded.”
Living guidelines
“Living guidelines represent an approach to guideline development in which individual recommendations are continually updated as new, relevant evidence becomes available,” explains the authors.
The Perspective says the living guidelines can be achieved, “… through monthly searches of key databases to identify recently published research.
“Following analysis of the new data, an impact assessment is conducted to determine whether the evidence is of sufficient relevance, reliability and importance to justify revising recommendations.”
The authors also write that there are currently two systematic reviews under development to underpin these guidelines.
The reviews are focused on the comparative safety and effectiveness of therapeutics for blood glucose control in adults with type 2 diabetes and the use of technologies for the management of type 1 diabetes in adult and paediatric populations.
