HomeAs in the past, each chapter is written by authors from across Canada with expertise in the specific topic. The editorial board, comprised of members with broad expertise in clinical and/or public health aspects of TB, reviewed multiple versions of each chapter to ensure optimal clarity and consistency of information and related recommendations. This edition was also developed in collaboration with the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada (AMMI Canada), whose expert representatives served as chapter authors and external reviewers.
The Standards were written in 2021. Between January and March 2021, priority content areas were selected by chapter authors with input from the editorial board. The Standards chapters from the 7th edition were evaluated, updates or new sections were added and obsolete sections eliminated based on a consensus of the editorial board and chapter authors and results of a survey of users of the 7th edition of the Canadian TB Standards conducted in 2018-19. Questions of interest were considered in accordance with the PICO method, addressing the Patient group(s) that should be included, the Intervention(s) that should be examined, the Comparison groups that should be part of the studies of the various interventions and the Outcome(s) of interest.
As with previous editions, the 8th edition of the Standards is based upon the best available scientific evidence. Each group of chapter authors conducted literature searches between March to July 2021, for their individual chapters. Authors then carefully reviewed all published evidence, emphasizing the most recent studies, particularly recent systematic reviews. Given the scope of the Standards, with over 120 good practice statements and over 125 different recommendations across 15 chapters, the full GRADE process was not followed. Although formal appraisal tools were not used, each author was required to appraise any included studies for quality of evidence and risk of bias, in order to determine the level of evidence (see the following section). For each recommendation, the panel of authors established a consensus on the strength of the recommendation (either strong or conditional) based on an established framework (see the following section), including their rating of the overall quality of the body of evidence. The recommendations were then vetted by the CTS Canadian Respiratory Guidelines Committee (CRGC) Chair to optimize the language of each recommendation to ensure implementability.
Key points are presented at the top of each chapter. These were selected for emphasis based on a consensus of each chapter’s authors.
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