A new version of Estonia’s handbook for the development of clinical guidelines has been published following an in-depth evaluation of its guideline development programme by WHO. Clinical guidelines synthesize what is known about a health topic and harness expertise to interpret that knowledge and related research evidence. By following steps to avoid bias, they provide the key source of knowledge for informing decision-making about health.
Over the last 11 years, Estonia, under the leadership of the Estonian Health Insurance Fund and supported by the University of Tartu and WHO, has established a well-functioning guideline development programme that has served as an example for other countries.
The first Estonian handbook for guideline development was published in 2011 by WHO, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund and University of Tartu. Following the new methodology, over the next decade 27 guidelines were compiled and approved by the Guideline Advisory Board.
High-quality and evidence-based
WHO has supported the Estonian guideline development programme since 2010 through various activities, such as providing training workshops and webinars, developing a handbook, introducing IT and methodological tools, as well as providing teaching materials and direct tailored support and mentoring for guideline development.
In 2015 WHO conducted an in-depth evaluation of the progress of guideline development in Estonia and, among other system improvements, the organization recommended revising the handbook to reflect methodological and infrastructure-related updates, to ensure that high-quality and evidence-based guidelines are produced.
The newly published and adapted Estonian handbook for guideline development 2020 was created in collaboration with WHO, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the University of Tartu. The WHO Country Office in Estonia facilitated methodological support and language editing by involving colleagues from WHO/Europe and international consultants in the process.
The updated clinical guideline handbook brings together experiences from Estonia alongside the latest internationally recognized methods for compiling evidence-based guidelines. It describes all aspects of guideline development, from assessing the need for the guideline to discussing its distribution, implementation and steps needed to update it.