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Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) guidelines development: standard operating procedure

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Abstract

Introduction

The mission of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) is to innovate, educate, and collaborate to improve patient care. A critical element in meeting this mission is the publishing of trustworthy and current guidelines for the practicing surgeon.

Methods

In this manuscript, we outline the steps of developing high quality practice guidelines using a completely volunteer-based professional organization.

Results

SAGES has developed a standardized approach to train volunteer surgeons and trainees alike to develop clinically pertinent guidelines in a timely manner, without sacrificing quality.

Conclusions

This methodology can be used more widely by volunteer organizations to efficiently develop effective tools for practicing physicians.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, USA

    Amelia T. Rogers, Rebecca Dirks & Dimitrios Stefanidis

  2. Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), Los Angeles, USA

    Holly Ann Burt

  3. NorthShore University Health System, Evanston, USA

    Stephen Haggerty

  4. Department of Surgery, Monash University, Eastern Health Clinical School, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Geoffrey P. Kohn

  5. Melbourne Upper GI Surgical Group, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Geoffrey P. Kohn

  6. Department of Surgery, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, USA

    Bethany J. Slater

  7. Department of Surgery, East Carolina University, Greenville, USA

    Danielle Walsh

  8. Department of Surgery, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, USA

    Aurora Pryor

  9. 1319 Rufer Ave, Louisville, KY, 40204, USA

    Amelia T. Rogers

Authors
  1. Amelia T. Rogers
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  2. Rebecca Dirks
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  3. Holly Ann Burt
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  4. Stephen Haggerty
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  5. Geoffrey P. Kohn
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  6. Bethany J. Slater
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  7. Danielle Walsh
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  8. Dimitrios Stefanidis
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  9. Aurora Pryor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amelia T. Rogers.

Ethics declarations

Disclosures

Amelia T. Rogers, MD—salary support from SAGES for role as Guidelines Fellow. Rebecca Dirks, MD, MS—SAGES paid for travel to the G-I-N (guidelines international network) conference last year; hold stock in Johnson and Johnson, unrelated to current project. Holly Ann Burt, MLIS—contracted by SAGES as a medical librarian. Geoffrey P. Kohn, MBBS, MSurg—paid by Avant Law Australia to provide expert opinion reports in the field of upper GI surgery, unrelated to this manuscript. Bethany J. Slater, MD, MBA—receives consulting fees from Boulder Surgical. Danielle Walsh, MD—unpaid member of Society of Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons Board of Governors—member at large; American College of Surgeons Board of Governors; American Academy of Pediatrics Surgery Committee. Aurora Pryor, MD, MBA—receives honoraria for speaking from Ethicon, Gore, Medtronic, Merck, and Stryker. Stephen Haggerty, MD and Dimitrios Stefanidis, MD, PhD—have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Databases used for literature search

Primary resources

  1. 1.

    MEDLINE

    • MEDLINE consists of biomedical and life sciences citations indexed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and includes 27 million citations from 5274 regularly indexed journals using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)

    • PubMed (http://pubmed.gov/): Free search interface created by the NLM searches 31 million indexed and non-indexed citations from over 37,500 journals (1781-present)

    • Ovid MEDLINE (https://www.ovid.com/) (1946-present) and EBSCO MEDLINE (https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/medline) (1809-present) are subscription interfaces using NLM data

  2. 2.

    Embase (https://www.embase.com/)

    • Subscription database of 32 million records of biomedical and pharmacological articles (1947-present) and conference abstracts (2009-present)

    • Search 8500 journals including MEDLINE titles and 2900 uniquely indexed using the EMTREE indexing system

  3. 3.

    Cochrane library (https://www.cochranelibrary.com/)

    • Focused on informing healthcare decision making, the free search interface accesses nearly 1.7 million items from six databases including Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)

    • Search results include trials (from Clinicaltrials.gov and ICTRP), articles (Embase, PubMed, CINAHL), and Cochrane publications (reviews, protocols, etc.); some items are available only by subscription

  4. 4.

    Clinicaltrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov)

    • Nearly 350,000 freely accessible clinical trials in all phases from 216 countries: search by disease/condition, intervention, or other terms (2000-present)

    • Trials may include related article citations linked to PubMed (either supporting articles or publications of results) and/or raw study results

  5. 5.

    ICTRP: International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (https://www.who.int/ictrp/en/)

    • Over 500,000 freely accessible registered trials with links to individual country clinical trial platforms but few linked articles or study results (2005-present)

    • Use the trial ID(s) to search Google Scholar and/or PubMed for related articles

Specialty databases

  1. 1.

    CINAHL: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (https://www.ebscohost.com/nursing/products/cinahl-databases)

    • Subscription databases focused on nursing, alternative/complementary medicine, biomedicine, and physical and occupational therapy. Search 760–5,500 journals (depending on product) indexed with CINAHL Subject Headings (1937-present)

  2. 2.

    PsycINFO (https://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/)

    • American Psychological Association (APA) subscription database focused on social, psychological, and behavioral sciences. Search 4.9 million articles and book chapters indexed with the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (1700s-present)

  3. 3.

    LILACS: Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (https://lilacs.bvsalud.org/en/)

    • WHO PAHO (World Health Organization Pan-American Health Organization) offers this free search interface of nearly 1 million health science records from 900 journals published in Latin America and Caribbean countries and indexed with Descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS), an extended translation of MeSH. Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, and English (1982-present)

  4. 4.

    ERIC: Education Resources Information Center (https://eric.ed.gov/)

    • This free Institute of Education Services sponsored database includes 1.7 million records focused on education research from 1200 journals and 700 government and non-profit sources. Descriptor and identification terms added. (1966-present). ERIC (EBSCO) and ERIC (ProQuest) are subscription databases accessing ERIC data

  5. 5.

    Theses and dissertations

    • Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) (https://oatd.org/): Free search of over 5.1 million publications from 1100 international institutions (1734-present)

    • ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global (https://proquest.libguides.com/pqdt) Subscription database searching over 5 million international records (1637-present)

  6. 6.

    International HTA (Health Technology Assessment) Database (https://database.inahta.org/)

    • Free interface searching 17,000 HTAs indexed with MeSH and providing links to the published reports (1989-Present)

  7. 7.

    FDA Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database (https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfMAUDE/search.CFM)

    • This Food and Drug Administration (FDA) database contains over 9.2 million reports on medical devices that malfunctioned or caused death or serious injury submitted by manufacturers, voluntary reporters. Related databases are linked (1993-present)

Additional resources and portals

  1. 1.

    Turning research into practice (TRIP) medical database (https://www.tripdatabase.com/)

    • Free search engine focused on clinical research retrieving over 2.5 million articles from free online resources and sorted by study type. Optional subscription includes additional clinical trials, medical images, and systematic reviews

  2. 2.

    Virtual health library (VHL) regional portal: https://bvsalud.org/en/

    • Sponsored by WHO PAHO, this free interface searches across multiple Pan-American databases including LILACS, Bibliographic Index Spanish in Health Sciences (IBECS) and the National Bibliography of Health Sciences (BINACIS)

  3. 3.

    DOAJ: directory of open access journals (https://doaj.org/)

    • A free portal searching 15,000 international and interdisciplinary peer reviewed journals and over 5.1 million articles from 133 countries. Subject indexing added to journals which must meet strict guidelines to remain included (1874-present)

  4. 4.

    Google scholar (https://scholar.google.com/)

    • Free interface searching freely accessible scholarly literature across the web including online journal citations, citation services (e.g., PubMed), pre-print servers, and patents. No indexing; uses only author explicit terms. Automated citation analysis

  5. 5.

    Web of science (https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/)

    • Subscription database searching 171 million records from 34,600 journals in the natural and biomedical sciences. Provides links to items citing a selected article (times cited), the article’s cited references, and author h-indexes (1800-present)

  6. 6.

    Scopus (https://www-elsevier-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/solutions/scopus)

    • Subscription database focused on sciences and social sciences. Search over 75 million records from 38,000 journals, book chapters, and conference papers. Provides links to items citing a selected article (cited by) and the article’s references (1788-present)

  7. 7.

    AHRQ: agency for healthcare research and quality (https://www.ahrq.gov/)

    • AHRQ collects data and publications in multiple topic areas; databases include Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR), Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), and National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports

Medical libraries may provide access to subscription databases.

Appendix 2

Modified Newcastle–Ottawa Scale

figure a
figure b

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Rogers, A.T., Dirks, R., Burt, H.A. et al. Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) guidelines development: standard operating procedure. Surg Endosc 35, 2417–2427 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-021-08469-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-021-08469-z

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