American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP)

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American College of Chest Physicians
(ACCP) Health and Science Policy Committee
Orientation Program Part 1 General Overview and
Structure
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Health and Science Policy Committee
Leaders David Gutterman, MD, FCCP, Chair Doreen
Addrizzo-Harris, MD, FCCP, Vice-Chair Michael
Baumann, MD, FCCP, Ex Officio
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Health Science Policy (HSP) Mission Vision
HSP Vision The American College of Chest
Physicians is the leading resource in the
development of evidence-based guidelines in the
field of chest medicine. HSP Mission To
optimize patient care by integrating
evidence-based guidelines into clinical
practice.  
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What is Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)?
Evidence-Based Medicine has been described as the
"integration of best research evidence with
clinical expertise and patient values." David
Sackett, et al. Evidence-Based Medicine How to
Practice and Teach EBM (New York Churchill
Livingstone, 2000)
Evidence-based medicine is the conscientious,
explicit and judicious use of current best
evidence in making decisions about the care of
individual patients. The practice of
evidence-based medicine means integrating
individual clinical expertise with the best
available external clinical evidence from
systematic research. David L Sackett, William MC
Rosenberg, JA Muir Gray, R Brian Haynes, W Scott
Richardson Evidence-Based Medicine What it is
and what it isn't. Based on an editorial from
the British Medical Journal (BMJ 1996)
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What are Evidence-Based Clinical Practice
Guidelines (CPG)?
"Clinical practice guidelines are systematically
developed statements to assist practitioner and
patient decisions about appropriate health care
for specific clinical circumstances."
Institute of Medicine, 1990
Evidence-based guidelines are founded upon the
integration of the current best evidence, which
is usually located in clinically relevant
research that has been conducted using sound
methodology.
ACCP guideline development incorporates a
systematic review of the clinical literature and
provision of recommendations based upon the
results of the review.
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Health Science Policy (HSP) Goals

• Identify conditions or interventions that
  potentially have high public health and global
  economic impact and in which management could be
  significantly improved by a change in clinical
  practice.
• 2. Identify clinical topics where treatment or
  diagnostic strategies are evolving. 
• 3. Identify topics that have a sufficient
  established body of published evidence for develop
  ment of a clinical practice guideline. 
• 4. Identify topics that reflect the
  constituency of the American College of Chest
  Physicians and that may cross over to other
  disciplines.
• 5. Identify and develop tools that enable
  clinicians to quickly reference and utilize
  evidence-based guidelines in day-to-day practice.
  
• 6. Work collaboratively with the ACCP
  Continuing Education Committee and others as
  appropriate to incorporate evidence-based
  guidelines into educational venues.
•   
• 7. Work with other organizations as
  appropriate to develop, sponsor, and/or disseminat
  e
• evidence-based guidelines.

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HSP Committee Composition

• The committee is comprised of thirteen voting
  members and one ex-officio. Of the thirteen
  voting members one serves as the committee chair
  and one as the committee vice-chair
• Roughly half are methodology experts and half
  are clinical experts preferably with some
  evidence-based medicine and guideline development
  experience

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Subcommittees of the Health Science Policy
Committee

• Most HSP responsibilities fall under one of three
  categories, thus three sub-committees have been
  formed to equally distribute the responsibilities
  of the committee. The subcommittees meet once a
  month prior to the full HSP Committee conference
  call and present recommendations to HSPC on
  relevant issues.
• Guidelines Subcommittee Reviews guideline
  topic applications, conducts yearly reviews of
  all guidelines and makes recommendations
  regarding the status of ACCP guidelines. This
  subcommittee also reviews draft ACCP guidelines.
• Policy Procedures Subcommittee Develops
  policy relevant to Health and Science Policy and
  reviews all issues related to conflict of
  interest.
• Implementation Subcommittee Develops innovative
  methods for implementing ACCP guidelines and
  changing physician behavior.

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HSP Member Role and Responsibilities

• The HSP Committee is essential to provide
  recommendations to the ACCP leadership on
  evidence-based medicine and policy development
  issues.
• Members must be available to review written
  drafts of clinical practice guidelines and
  provide recommendations for approval.
• Members may be asked to serve as an HSP liaison
  on guideline development panels convened by the
  ACCP to ensure that the documents are developed
  following the approved evidence-based
  methodology.
• From time to time, members may also be asked to
  serve as liaisons to guideline panels spearheaded
  by other organizations.