Date: 2004-09-10

Guidelines are systematically developed statements designed to help practitioners and patients to make decisions about appropriate health care for specific conditions. Guidelines contribute to the development of the profession of Physiotherapy: to reduce differences in Physiotherapy treatment and enhance uniformity in the profession; to show the tasks and responsibilities of the profession; and to stimulate collaboration with other health care professions.

This framework for clinical guideline development is written to create a common basis for the development of guidelines in Physiotherapy. This framework aims to assist Member Organizations of the European Region of WCPT for several purposes:

• To assist Member Organizations who may be considering, or already involved in, the development of a clinical guideline.
• To set out the methodology for clinical guideline development as a standard for Guideline Development Groups (GDG)s in the European Region of WCPT.
• To assist Member Organizations in their understanding of clinical guidelines and their development.

The development of clinical guidelines is in this framework is divided into six main areas: (1) Organization and structure of guideline development; (2) Preparation; (3) Guideline Development; (4) Validation; (5) Dissemination and Implementation and (6) Evaluation and Revision. In each phase we describe the steps to take, based on current insights. The AGREE instrument is used as reference for describing the development process.

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Framework for Clinical Guideline Development in Physiotherapy