Preferred Reporting Items for the Development of Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines in Traditional Medicine (PRIDE-CPG-TM): Explanation and elaboration

IntroductionThe development of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in traditional medicine (TM) is an ongoing challenge as it is unique area. This study describes a unified platform with Preferred Reporting Items for the Development of Evidence-based CPGs in TM (PRIDE-CPG-TM), which has been successfully used by the evidence-based CPGs committee for TM.MethodsInitially we searched the literature and CPG handbooks, collected items from methodology references and drew on experiences gained from Korean medical physicians and methodology experts. A group of experts subsequently edited drafts of the items, identified one or more examples of good reporting for each item, and developed text that explained the rationale and discussed relevant evidence. Face to face meetings were held with experts to finalize the items with the most extensive elaboration.ResultsThe PRIDE-CPG-TM, in the form of a checklist and description of items with TM approach and TM examples, were designed to improve the reporting of CPG in TM and thereby facilitate their interpretation and replication. The PRIDE-CPG-TM included 5 domains and 40 items. The items pertain to the development methodology (22 items), Overview of diseases and symptoms (6 items), Recommendations (4 items), Implementation and dissemination (5 items) and others (3 items).ConclusionsThe completeness of CPG descriptions in TM is very poor. Therefore, a complete description of the recommendations for TM in CPGs is necessary for physicians to implement the recommendations in clinical practice areas. The PRIDE-CPG-TM will provide useful guidance for TM developers in the development of evidence-based CPGs.