Discussion on Collection of Clinical Questions in International Clinical Practice Guidelines of Acupuncture-Moxibustion / 中国结合医学杂志

The clinical questions of acupuncture-moxibustion (Acup-Mox) guidelines are complicated, including not only the curative effect of Acup-Mox intervention measures, but also the operational elements of Acup-Mox. This paper aimed to put forward the idea and process of collecting clinical questions in developing international acupuncture clinical practice guidelines. The experience was collected and the idea of collecting clinical questions of Acup-Mox was formed through expert consultation and discussion in combination with expert opinions. Based on the characteristics of Acup-Mox discipline. This paper put forward the thinking of collecting elements of clinical questions following the intervention-population-outcome-control (I-P-O-C) inquiry process, according to the discipline of Acup-Mox. It was emphasized that in the process of collecting clinical questions, "treatable population" and "alleviable outcome indicators" for a specific Acup-Mox intervention with certain therapeutic effect should be focused on, so as to highlight the pertinence of clinical questions of Acup-Mox guidelines in terms of population and outcome elements.

Analysis and thought on reaching the consensus during the development of acupuncture and moxibustion clinical practice guidelines in China / 中国针灸

Based on the 28 Chinese clinical practice guidelines of acupuncture and moxibustion, this study summarized and analyzed the contents related to reaching consensus during the development process. The results indicated that all the 28 guidelines reported they have used consensus in the "recommendations" section, and provided details on consensus personnel, consensus methods, consensus process and consensus materials. However, it was found that the reporting of consensus was in need of further improvement. The limitations included unclear definition and responsibilities of "expert group", obscure concept between "consensus meeting" and "expert discussion", non-rigorous process of reaching consensus when generating recommendations and lacking of detailed reporting of the consensus reaching process. As such, we suggested that future researchers should conduct researches to further standardized the consensus process when developing acupuncture and moxibustion clinical practice guidelines, so as to improve the quality and clinical applicability of guidelines．.

Investigation and analysis on the current situation of clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture and moxibustion at home and abroad / 中国针灸

To provide directional suggestions for the establishment of international clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture and moxibustion by investigating the current situation of clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture and moxibustion at home and abroad. The clinical practice guidelines were obtained by questionnaire survey, database retrieval and experts consulting. The guidelines were read carefully, and the content was analyzed. A total of 27 acupuncture-moxibustion clinical practice guidelines were retrieved, of which most of the guidelines came from China. The definition and scope of "acupuncture and moxibustion "vary according to different guidelines; and the focus of the content and the method of establishing the guidelines are quite different, so it is very necessary to unify the formulation methods of acupuncture-moxibustion clinical practice guidelines. Chinese clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture and moxibustion were characterized by taking the ancient literature as the evidence. Excavating the value of ancient literature and clinical experience of acupuncture-moxibustion experts are the key points and difficulties in the developing of clinical practice guidelines of acupuncture and moxibustion in the future.

Consideration on existing problems in development of clinical practice guidelines for acupuncture and moxibustion in China / 中国针灸

To sort out the existing problems within the published 35 evidence-based acupuncture-moxibustion clinical practice guidelines (group standards) in Chinese: the development methods and the development process are not clear and strict enough; the evidence evaluation system fails to fully reflect the characteristics of acupuncture and moxibustion. Therefore,