Professional Statements and Societal Positions Guidelines
American College of Cardiology Foundation and American Heart Association (ACCF/AHA)-2019
In conjunction with the implementation of the modular knowledge chunk, standardized guideline formats and a target maximum number of words have been implemented. The intentions of this format are: 1) to make a guideline more recommendation-centric; and 2) to limit text (and thus the overall size of the guideline), making the guideline more relevant and readable for the busy practitioner. Detailed and extensive background information, which can readily be found in book chapters, on websites, or via search engines, is deemphasized. Rather, the focus of the guideline is on the recommendations themselves, presented in the modular knowledge chunk format.
So as to decrease the total text (and length) of guidelines, for each aspect of the guideline and each section of the modular chunk, maximum word targets (goals) have been established. Text at the beginning of each major section of the guideline that presents recommendations, the synopsis text for each modular chunk, and recommendation-specific supplemental text all have a target maximum number of 200 words.
The goal for Section one (1) of the guideline (methodology, organization of the writing committee, document review and approval, abbreviations and acronyms) and section two (2) (general concepts, brief background information, overarching principles) is a maximum of 2,000 words and five (5) journal-formatted pages for each section. This standardized guideline format is a process-in-evolution that will bring a more standardized layout, and more limited text, to guidelines, although it will still allow guideline writing committee chairs some discretion in how to best construct each specific guideline. The current iteration of this standardized guideline.
