leitlinienwatch.de - ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure, engl.

Evaluation by Leitlinienwatch

01.07.16

PTs.	Criterion
2	Transparency European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guideline outside the German AWMF guideline register. (http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/ehj/early/2016/06/08/eurheartj.ehw128.full.pdf). Detailed information regarding conflicts of interest for each author is published on the ESC homepage. (http://www.escardio.org/static_file/Escardio/Guidelines/DOI_HF.pdf) There is no transparent evaluation of conflicts of interest as part of the guideline process.
0	Composition of the Guideline Working Group 18 out of 21 authors in the guideline working group declare financial conflicts of interest. (http://www.escardio.org/static_file/Escardio/Guidelines/DOI_HF.pdf)
0	Independence of the Coordinators/Chairs/Lead AuthorsUnabhängigkeit der Vorsitzenden/federführenden Autoren Both lead authors declare financial conflicts of interest. (http://www.escardio.org/static_file/Escardio/Guidelines/DOI_HF.pdf)
0	Abstention from Voting There is no documented rule regarding abstentions for authors with COI.
0	External Review of the Guideline An external review via a publicly accessible website did not occur; only an internal review took place (see below).
1	Bonus Points 1 bonus point for internal review by 18 reviewers selected by the ESC. These reviewers also declared their conflicts of interest (ESC Committee for Practice Guidelines (CPG)).

Explanations to the evaluation criteria

Overall score

Good! (11-18)

Warning! (6-10)

Needs reform! (0-5)

Comment

The ESC guidelines also apply in Germany as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kardiologie (German Society of Cardiology) publishes a pocket guideline entitled “Herzinsuffizienz” (“Heart Failure,” last updated in 2012) that is based on the ESC guidelines. Evaluation of the guideline by independent authors is advisable, especially considering the pending introduction of a new therapeutic approach to treating heart failure (neprilysin-angiotensin blockade) that is expected to generate billions in revenue. The majority of the ESC guideline authors declare financial conflicts of interest. A standard guideline report that would explain the study evaluation methods, recruitment of the guideline working group, evaluations of conflicts of interest and the measures derived from those evaluations (such as rules regarding abstention from voting) is not provided.