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Improving clinical practice guidelines with implementation science

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Clinical practice guidelines provide evidence-informed recommendations to improve the delivery of high-quality health care. Despite their ubiquity, the translation of clinical guidelines into routine clinical practice remains suboptimal. We propose the use of implementation science methods in the development of clinical practice guidelines to improve uptake.

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Fig. 1: Embedding implementation science into the guideline development and translation processes.

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Acknowledgements

M.N.S. is the recipient of a National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant (Emerging Leader Fellowship) commencing in 2022. L.K.J. and S.S.G. receive funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH. G.F.W. is a recipient of research grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council and Medical Research Future Funds.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Mitchell N. Sarkies, Laney K. Jones.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Mitchell N. Sarkies

  2. School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Mitchell N. Sarkies

  3. Genomic Medicine Institute, Geisinger, Danville, PA, USA

    Laney K. Jones & Samuel S. Gidding

  4. Heart Institute, Geisinger, Danville, PA, USA

    Laney K. Jones & Samuel S. Gidding

  5. School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Gerald F. Watts

  6. Department of Cardiology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Gerald F. Watts

Authors
  1. Mitchell N. Sarkies
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  2. Laney K. Jones
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  3. Samuel S. Gidding
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  4. Gerald F. Watts
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mitchell N. Sarkies.

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Competing interests

M.N.S. has received personal fees from Amgen. S.S.G. is a consultant to Esperion for the development of clinical trials for new lipid-lowering agents for children. G.F.W. is a consultant to and recipient of research grants from Amgen, Arrowhead, Regeneron and Sanofi; and a consultant to AstraZeneca, Esperion and Pfizer. L.K.J. declares no competing interests.

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Sarkies, M.N., Jones, L.K., Gidding, S.S. et al. Improving clinical practice guidelines with implementation science. Nat Rev Cardiol 19, 3–4 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-021-00645-x

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