Combating information chaos: a case for collaborative clinical guidelines in a pandemic

Abstract

The speed and scale of new information during the COVID-19 pandemic required a new approach toward developing best practices and evidence-based clinical guidance. To address this need, we produced COVIDProtocols.org, a collaborative, evidence-based, digital platform for the development and dissemination of COVID-19 clinical guidelines that has been used by over 500,000 people from 196 countries. We use a Collaborative Writing Application (CWA) to facilitate an expedited expert review process and a web platform that deploys content directly from the CWA to minimize any delays. Over 200 contributors have volunteered to create open creative-commons content that spans over 30 specialties and medical disciplines. Multiple local and national governments, hospitals, and clinics have used the site as a key resource for their own clinical guideline development. COVIDprotocols.org represents a model for efficiently launching open-access clinical guidelines during crisis situations to share expertise and combat misinformation.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04389671.

Figure 1

COVIDprotocols.org models a continuously updated collaborative clinical guideline process (A) Collaborative guidelines process; CWA, collaborative writing application (i.e., Google Docs). (B) COVIDprotocols.org homepage and key features.