What are Living Guidelines?

The living guideline aims to present the best available, current scientific evidence for pharmacological management. As a living guideline, questions will continue to be addressed, new recommendations developed, and existing recommendations updated on an ongoing basis. Recommendations are intended as guides to courses of action subject to clinical judgement and patient preferences. New recommendations will continue to be added in order of priority, based on a recent survey of Australian Rheumatology Association members.

The guideline may be accessed online via any web browser. Each recommendation is accompanied by supporting text including the evidence that was used to form the recommendation, a detailed rationale for the panel’s decision, and practical information to help users implement the recommendations. 

How are the Living Guidelines updated?
Evidence searches underpinning living recommendations are conducted every three months and the results presented to the guideline panel in an evidence summary update. The emergence of new impactful evidence will be reflected in the publication of a new version of a recommendation.

A review of each living recommendation will be conducted annually to ensure the currency of information relating to the evidence to decision criteria, the ongoing applicability of the evidence search terms and whether further living updates are warranted.

Feedback
Users of the guideline are encouraged to provide feedback on individual recommendations via the “Feedback” tab under each recommendation.