Guidelines and Resources

Canadian Respiratory Guidelines Committee and Assemblies of the CTS

The CTS Canadian Respiratory Guidelines Committee (CRGC) provides oversight to our standardized guidelines/position statements process, and knowledge translation expertise to the Assemblies.  The Chair of the CRGC represents and reports on the progress of the Assemblies involved in the development of clinical practice guidelines or position statements to the CTS Board of Directors.

The CTS governance model includes Assemblies which are broad-based interest group focussed on a particular clinical area in respiratory health.  The work of an Assembly is advisory to the CTS Board and its Standing Committees.  The Assemblies identify and develop priorities and programs in research, education and continuous professional development, and the production of respiratory guidelines and their corresponding resources and tools.  As part of its strategic plan, the CTS aims to drive the rapid implementation of new knowledge in clinical practice using guidelines, position statements, knowledge transfer and cutting-edge research.

Mentoring

Mentoring is an effective tool for shaping organizational culture and closing engagement and generational gaps.   To ensure a wide range of voices and ideas, CTS ensures early career members are actively involved in the Society’s assembly guideline activities.   Being an early career member gives you the platform to interact with a large network of clinicians, researchers, and educators in your field.  It is also a great opportunity to build on your communications skills, boost your CV and influence the activities of Canada’s leading authority in respiratory standards and medical guidance.

Conflict of Interest

CTS Guideline developers are functionally and editorially independent from any funding sources of the CTS and do not receive any direct funding from external sources.  The CTS receives unrestricted grants which are combined into a central operating account to facilitate the knowledge translation activities of the CTS Assemblies.  No funders play a role in the collection, review, analysis or interpretation of the scientific literature or in any decisions regarding the key messages presented in this document.

Members of the CTS guideline working groups declare potential conflicts of interest at the time of appointment and these are updated throughout the process in accordance with the CTS Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy.  Individual member conflict of interest statements are posted below.

CTS Guidelines and Position Statements are listed in the first table below. Other Guidance and Endorsed guidelines adhering to the CTS Endorsement Policyon particular issues or disease areas can be found in the second table at the bottom of this page.

CTS guidelines are published in the Canadian Journal of Respiratory, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine by Taylor & Francis Group http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/UCTS20/current.

CTS Framework for Guideline Dissemination and Implementation, with Concurrent Evaluation has three spheres of action:  guideline production, implementation infrastructure and knowledge translation (KT) methodological support.  The elements of the CTS Framework are intended to support Guideline/Position Statement Working Groups and other interested parties in planning, designing, and leading KT activities beginning with guideline production, continuing throughout implementation and ending with objective evaluation.  It consists of the following three areas:

KT Methodology

In 2006, Graham and colleagues studied over 60 planned action models, characterizing common elements in an effort to devise a comprehensive but practical framework for KT activities.  This approach, termed the “Knowledge-to-Action” (PDF to 2006 article diagram) process, has since been broadly espoused by implementation researchers, recommended by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and herein designated as the CTS model for conceptualizing and developing KT interventions.

Implementability is a multi-dimensional construct comprised of a set of characteristics. To facilitate uptake, the process of guideline development has two broad aims: the creation of content and the communication of that content (link to Kastner JCE 2015). The four domains of content creation are stakeholder involvement, evidence synthesis, considered judgment in formulating recommendations, and feasibility. The two domains of content communication relate to fine-tuning the message itself and its format.

(link to Gupta CMAJ 2016) or key messages has to be simple, clear, and persuasive in order to reduce cognitive load, increase understanding and retention, and render convincing and salient arguments.  Correspondingly, level of complexity is inversely proportional to overall guideline adoption and recommendation adherence.  At the same time, a number of formatting aspects of guidelines can promote their use in practice. These include presentation aspects such as a user-friendly layout (e.g. considering document length and the placement of visual elements), structure (e.g. bundling information and matching the order and flow of recommendations to that of real-world practice), and how information is best visualized (e.g. conveying complex recommendations through tables, graphs and flowcharts).

The CTS Toolkit includes information about existing knowledge tools, such as continuing professional development resources and other such tools, many of which are available online; planned, ongoing and previous local, provincial and national implementation programs and projects; and ongoing KT studies in the respiratory field.  The CTS members, guideline experts, respiratory organizations, provincial lung associations and health ministries will contribute to the toolkit.