Guidelines International Network

Guidelines International Network G-I-N

Motto	To improve the quality of healthcare
Formation	2002
Type	International NPO
Purpose	Promoting the use of evidence-based guidelines, Health care information
Headquarters	Berlin, Germany
Region served	Worldwide
Chairperson	Ina Kopp[1]
Website	www.g-i-n.net

The Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) is an international scientific association of organisations and individuals interested and involved in development and application of evidence-based guidelines^[2] and health care information. The network supports evidence-based health care and improved health outcomes by reducing inappropriate variation throughout the world.

Membership and Organisation

The Network's membership consists of more than 100 institutions working in the field of medical guidelines and other types of healthcare guidance as well as of individual experts (October 2012). The members represent about 48 countries from all continents. The list of members is available on the G-I-N website^[3] Being constituted as a Scottish Guarantee Company under Company Number SC243691, the Network is recognised as a Scottish Charity under Scottish Charity Number SC034047.

History

Based upon the work of the international AGREE Collaboration for the quality of clinical practice guidelines,^[4] an organised network for organisations and experts working in the field of evidence-based guidelines was proposed in early 2002 at the first international guideline conference in Berlin, Germany.^[5] Guideline experts called for international standardized guideline methods, and information exchange in this field. The proposal was endorsed by health care agencies from all parts of the world such as AHRQ (USA), CBO (NL) German Agency for Quality in Medicine, NICE (UK), SIGN (UK), and NZGG (NZ). Against this background the Guidelines International Network G-I-N was founded in November 2002 in Paris with Günter Ollenschläger as founding chairman.^[6]

Mission and Aims

The goal of the network is to lead, strengthen and support collaboration and work within the guideline development, adaptation and implementation community. G-I-N's main aims are:

• Promoting best practice^[7] through the development of learning opportunities and capacity building, as well as the establishment of standards
• Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of evidence-based guideline development, adaptation, dissemination and implementation
• Building a Network and partnerships for guideline developing organisations, end users (such as health care providers, healthcare policy makers and consumers) and stakeholders.

Activities

G-I-N has an International Guideline Library,^[8] the world's largest guideline library, containing regularly updated guidelines and publications of the G-I-N membership. As of October 2012 more than 6,600 documents were available.

The Network organises the annual G-I-N Conference^[9] around the globe: 2003 Edinburgh (UK), 2004 Wellington (NZ), 2005 Lyon (FR), 2007 Toronto (CA), 2008 Helsinki (FI), 2009 Lisbon (PT),^[10] 2010 Chicago (US),^[11] 2011 Seoul (KR),^[12] 2012 Berlin (DE).^[13] 2013 San Francisco (US)).^[14]

G-I-N Projects are developed in several working groups^[15] focussing on the following topics:

• Evidence Tables^[16]
• Guideline Adaptation^[17]
• Guideline Implementation^[18]
• Allied Health Professionals and Guidelines^[19]
• Public and Patient involvement^[20]
• Emergency Care and Guidelines^[21]

External links

• G-I-N Website
• enGINe, the G-I-N Newsletter

References

1. . Retrieved 2014-11-19.
2. Burgers JS, Grol R, Klazinga NS, Mäkelä M, Zaat J, for the AGREE Collaboration. Towards evidence-based clinical practice: an international survey of 18 clinical guideline programs. Int J Qual Health Care 2003;15:31-45
3. G-I-N List of members
4. The AGREE Collaboration. Development and validation of an international appraisal instrument for assessing the quality of clinical practice guidelines: the AGREE project. Qual Saf Health Care 2003;12:18-23.
5. Miller J, Ollenschläger G. Globalisation of CPGs: Do we need an international guidelines network? Presentation, International Guideline Symposium CPG2002
6. G. Ollenschläger, C. Marshall, S. Qureshi et al.: Improving the quality of health care: using international collaboration to inform guideline programmes by founding the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N). Qual Saf Health Care 2004;13:455-460
7. Council of Europe. Developing a methodology for drawing up guidelines on best medical practice. Recommendation Rec(2001)13 and explanatory memorandum. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2002.
8. International Guideline Library
9. G-I-N events
10. 6th G-I-N Conference: Evidence translation in different countries.
11. 7th G-I-N Conference: Integrating Knowledge. Improving Outcomes.
12. 8th G-I-N Conference: Linking Evidence, Policy, and Practice.
13. 9th G-I-N Conference: Global Evidence. International Diversity.
14. 10th G-I-N Conference: Integrating Evidence into Practice - Strategies for the future.
15. G-I-N Activities
16. G-I-N Evidence Tables Working Group (ETWG)
17. G-I-N Guideline Adaptation Working Group
18. G-I-N Guideline Implementation Working Group
19. Allied Health and Guidelines Community
20. G-I-N PUBLIC
21. Emergency Care Community