2023 ESC Guidelines for the management of cardiomyopathies, engl.

Year of publication: 2023

Editing medical society(ies):
European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

Other medical societies involved: 2

ESC Guidelines


List of evaluated guidelines

Evaluation by Leitlinienwatch

07.11.25


PTs.

Criterion
2

Transparency

The ESC's handling of conflicts of interest is defined in the "ESC Declaration and Management of Conflict of Interest Policy", last updated in April 2023 (https://www.escardio.org/static-file/Escardio/Web/Documents/ESC-Declaration-and-Management-of-COI-Policy.pdf). The version from 2020 was used for this guideline, which was published in 2023. The authors report on their conflicts of interest from 2020 to 2022, while the reviewers and representatives of the national professional societies report on the conflicts of interest in 2021 and 2022 in the appendix to the guideline (2023 ESC Guidelines for the management of cardiomyopathies). The "ESC Declaration and Management of Conflict of Interest Policy" (https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/About/Policies/esc-declaration-and-management-of-conflict-of-interest-policy#process) names various bodies in the ESC, e.g. the "Office of Compliance" and the "Senior Compliance Council", which are to regulate conflicts of interest in the development of ESC guidelines. How this happens, who is active in these bodies, what they decide on what basis, is not apparent. A comprehensible assessment of the reported conflicts of interest by coordinators or an external committee therefore did not take place.
0

Composition of the Guideline Working Group

73% of authors report an average of 3.9 (up to 16) conflicts of interest.
0

Independence of the Coordinators/Chairs/Lead AuthorsUnabhängigkeit der Vorsitzenden/federführenden Autoren

Both lead authors state conflicts of interest.
0

Abstention from Voting
0

External Review of the Guideline

There was only an internal review process by representatives of the national cardiology societies. However, 73% of reviewers also report up to 16 (on average 3.2) conflicts of interest.
0

Bonus Points


Explanations to the evaluation criteria

Overall score

2

Good! (11-18)

Warning! (6-10)

Needs reform! (0-5)

Comment

This guideline published by the ESC in 2023 (European Heart Journal; 2023 - https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad194) was also adopted unchanged by the German Society of Cardiology (DGK) in 2023 and published as a pocket guideline. In this ESC guideline, too, the majority of authors (73%) report relevant conflicts of interest. Relevant in this context means that the majority of all authors have financial relationships with one or more manufacturers of the very medical devices about which they are supposed to judge independently. A significant weakness (as with all other ESC guidelines) is the fact that all authors were allowed to vote on the recommendations, even if they had conflicts of interest. The ESC's first steps towards regulating conflicts of interest by future guideline authors, which have been announced in the meantime, are to be welcomed. However, the exclusion of authors with more than €10,000 in industry payments per year leaves unreasonable scope for cumulative payments by a company to individual authors over several years. In addition, there is no clear rule for abstentions when voting on recommendations, but only a general expectation that participants with COI should abstain (Principle 3, p.2, https://www.escardio.org/static-file/Escardio/Web/Documents/ESC-Declaration-and-Management-of-COI-Policy.pdf).

Note: This evaluation was conducted with due care on the basis of the published guideline. Should you still discover an error, please contact us at info@leitlinienwatch.de.