KDIGO Life Cycle of Guideline Development Series Part 5: Guideline updates and a living model for the future.

Abstract

New evidence relevant to the management of kidney disease is constantly being generated, underscoring the need for timely, rigorous, and trustworthy clinical practice guidelines that translate evidence into improved patient outcomes. The accelerating pace of innovation presents a challenge as well as an opportunity for rapid and seamless translation. This paper extends the work of earlier papers in the methodology series by describing the methods that Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) uses to prioritize topics and update existing guidelines and recommendations. Finally, we examine a living guideline framework, balancing the promise of more agile, up-to-date recommendations with the practical and methodological challenges inherent to continuous evidence integration.