A new manual published by the USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program aims to guide health care professionals in the development and implementation of standard treatment guidelines (STGs).
STGs are designed to assist health care professionals in making decisions about appropriate, effective patient care. However, health managers often have trouble setting and meeting the high standards required of modern, developed health care systems. With stakeholders expressing concern over issues such as strength of evidence, transparency, conflicts of interest, and effective implementation, it is clear that many health care professionals need further guidance in developing and making use of STGs.
The new publication, titled “Developing, Implementing, and Monitoring the Use of Standard Treatment Guidelines: a SIAPS How-to Manual”, guides health professionals through the process of establishing and implementing STGs, placing special emphasis on the low- and middle-income country (LMIC) context. By including tools, templates, success stories, and links to useful resources, the manual helps health practitioners understand not only important concepts of treatment guidelines, but also how they can best be used in practice.
The manual can be viewed on the SIAPS website. Questions can be addressed to Mohan P. Joshi, SIAPS Principal Technical Advisor and Cluster Lead for Pharmaceutical Services: mjoshi@msh.org.
