An internet portal for the development of clinical practice guidelines.

BACKGROUND The complexity and quality requirements for the development of clinical practice guidelines steadily increase. Internet technologies support this process by optimizing the development process. OBJECTIVE The aim of this internet based solution was to facilitate the development of clinical practice guidelines. METHODS An internet portal was developed allowing for a shared workplace to support clinical practice guideline authoring. It is based on a Content Management System and combines different tools for document handling and editing, communication as well as process and team steering. RESULTS Until now, the internet portal has been successfully implicated in the development of six evidence- and consensus-based clinical practice guidelines. Additional German and European clinical practice guidelines are currently generated with support of the internet portal. The available tools allow for a flexible design of the scheduled workflow, depending on the requirements of the respective group. An additional strength of the platform is the advantage to transfer all data from a previous version of a guideline into the next 'life-cycle'. CONCLUSION The application of the portal results in a considerable reduction of costs and development time of the resulting clinical practice guidelines.