Translating Research Evidence into Clinical Recommendations Using the GRADE Methodology

Leader(s)

• 

  Souvik Mitra, MD, PhD, FRCPC (he/him/his)

  Associate Professor
  University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine
  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Co-Leader(s)

• SH

  Susanne Hay, MD

  Instructor
  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, United States
• 

  John Zupancic, MD ScD (he/him/his)

  Associate Professor of Pediatrics
  Neonatology
  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
  Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• 

  Roger Soll, MD

  Professor of Pediatrics
  Robert Larner, M.D., College of Medicine at the University of Vermont
  Hinesburg, Vermont, United States

Workshop Description: The COVID pandemic has highlighted the importance of developing evidence-based recommendations that are transparent and trustworthy. It requires best available evidence and clinical experience to conscientiously work with the values and preferences of families to create health recommendations that involve trading off the benefits with the potential harms. The GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) methodology provides a structured process to incorporate these elements to move from evidence to recommendations.
The workshop will include a brief didactic session introducing the concept of GRADE evidence-to-decision framework, followed by a hands-on-workshop where the participants will work through important components of the framework to formulate a health recommendation. We will use the topic of umbilical cord management in premature newborns as an example as the topic is relevant to general pediatricians and neonatologists globally. The participants will be provided with evidence summaries from updated systematic reviews. Audience polling will be used to evaluate variability in values and preferences of participants with respect to patient-important outcomes and demonstrate how that affects a health recommendation.
There will be 3 breakout sessions where participants will be asked to work in small groups. Each breakout session will comprise tasks aligned with one or more components of the evidence-to-decision framework. The groups will initially discuss and work through their respective tasks (10 minutes); report back through audience polling and engage in a brief discussion (10-15 minutes). We will leave the last 20 minutes to summarize the essential components of the framework to formulate a final recommendation.