In December 2013, the Public Health Policy Support Unit at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre organised a two-day workshop on developing evidence-based guidelines and healthcare recommendations using GRADE.
GRADE stands for Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation. It is a method for grading the quality of evidence and going from this evidence to the corresponding healthcare recommendation.
The aims of the workshop were:
1) To explain how to develop evidence-based guidelines and health recommendations using the GRADE approach.
2) To build a template for future trainings organised by the JRC on the guideline development process.
Twenty participants, without experience using GRADE, attended the workshop—including 14 JRC staff, as well as representatives from the Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and various external institutions. The workshop consisted of lectures on the theory behind guidelines development, group work and computer-based exercises.
Organisers and participants deemed the training a success and the Public Health Policy Support Unit is planning additional GRADE-oriented workshops in the future.JRC.I.2-Public Health Policy Suppor
