Evidence-Based Guidelines in Laboratory Medicine: Principles and Methods

Background: Guidelines are commonly used tools for supporting medical decisions. Formulating evidence-based recommendations has become a leading principle in guideline development. Aim: This narrative review integrates the most recent methods of evidence-based guideline development and adapts those to the field of laboratory medicine. Summary: We present a 10-step process and a list of criteria for the development of laboratory guidelines. Laboratory guidelines should be outcome oriented, be developed by a multidisciplinary team, and begin with a clear statement of the clinical question(s) that the use of the test(s) is addressing. The clinical questions define the type of study designs that offer the best evidence to answer those questions. Guidelines should be based o