Abstract
To end the international crisis of preventable deaths in low-income and middle-income countries, evidence-informed and cost-efficient health care is urgently needed, and contextualised clinical practice guidelines are pivotal. However, as exposed by indirect consequences of poorly adapted COVID-19 guidelines, fundamental gaps continue to be reported between international recommendations and realistic best practice. To address this long-standing injustice of leaving health providers without useful guidance, we draw on examples from maternal health and the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose a framework for how global guideline developers can more effectively stratify recommendations for low-resource settings and account for predictable contextual barriers of implementation (eg, human resources) as well as gains and losses (eg, cost-efficiency). Such development of more realistic clinical practice guidelines at the global level will pave the way for simpler and achievable adaptation at local levels. We also urge the development and adaptation of high-quality clinical practice guidelines at national and subnational levels in low-income and middle-income countries through co-creation with end-users, and we encourage global sharing of these experiences.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | e875-e879 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | The Lancet Global Health |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 23 Mar 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This Viewpoint received no specific funding. Several authors of this Viewpoint have substantial clinical experience and research experience in sub-Saharan Africa, including challenges in providing clinical practice in resource-constrained realities, in which available guidelines are unachievable. We would like to recognise the health-care providers serving at the frontlines of low-resource health-care systems and the women giving birth, from whom we will continue to learn. Additionally, we would like to thank Britt Pinkowski Tersb?l (Denmark) and Rashid Saleh Khamis (Zanzibar) for their valuable critical feedback on this Viewpoint.
Funding Information:
This Viewpoint is written by members of the PartoMa research project , which is funded by the Danida Fellowship Centre, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Danida project 18–08-KU). In partnership with Tanzanian health providers, the aim of the PartoMa project is to co-create context-tailored clinical practice guidelines and associated training for best possible safe and respectful care during birth. All authors declare no other competing interests.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Funding
This Viewpoint received no specific funding. Several authors of this Viewpoint have substantial clinical experience and research experience in sub-Saharan Africa, including challenges in providing clinical practice in resource-constrained realities, in which available guidelines are unachievable. We would like to recognise the health-care providers serving at the frontlines of low-resource health-care systems and the women giving birth, from whom we will continue to learn. Additionally, we would like to thank Britt Pinkowski Tersb?l (Denmark) and Rashid Saleh Khamis (Zanzibar) for their valuable critical feedback on this Viewpoint. This Viewpoint is written by members of the PartoMa research project , which is funded by the Danida Fellowship Centre, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Danida project 18–08-KU). In partnership with Tanzanian health providers, the aim of the PartoMa project is to co-create context-tailored clinical practice guidelines and associated training for best possible safe and respectful care during birth. All authors declare no other competing interests.
Funders | Funder number |
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Britt Pinkowski Tersbøl | |
Rashid Saleh Khamis | |
Danida Fellowship Centre | |
Udenrigsministeriet | 18–08-KU |
Udenrigsministeriet | |
research experience in sub-Saharan Africa |