AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGISTS AND AMERICAN COLLEGE OF ENDOCRINOLOGY PROTOCOL FOR STANDARDIZED PRODUCTION OF CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES, ALGORITHMS, AND CHECKLISTS-2014 UPDATE AND THE AACE G4G PROGRAM

In 2010, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) published an update to the original 2004 guidelines. This update hybridized strict evidence-based medicine methods with subjective factors and improved the efficiency of clinical practice guidelines (CPU) production, clinical applicability, and usefulness. Current and persistent shortcomings involving suboptimal implementation and protracted development timelines are addressed in the current 2014 update. the major advances include 1) formulation of an organizational educational strategy, represented by the AACE Council on Education, to address relevant teaching and decision making tools for clinical endocrinologists, and to generate specific clinical questions to drive CPU, clinical algorithm (CA), and clinical checklist (CC) development; 2) creation and prioritization of printed and online CAs and CCs with a supporting evidence base; 3) focus on clinically relevant and question-oriented topics; 4) utilization of "cascades," where there can be more than 1 recommendation for 1 clinical question; and 5) incorporation of performance metrics to validate, optimize, and effectively update CPU, CAs, and CCs. Efforts continue to translate these clinical tools to electronic formats that can be integrated into a paperless healthcare delivery system, as well as applying them to diverse clinical settings by incorporating transcultural factors.