Digitalizing Clinical Guidelines: Experiences in the Development of Clinical Decision Support Algorithms for Management of Childhood Illness in Resource-Constrained Settings

WHO generic and/or national IMCI guidelines to reflect country specific adaptations.

May involve updates based on national/international guidelines (e.g., national pneumonia guidelines may have been updated more recently than IMCI).

To extend scope (relative to IMCI) by incorporating information from various guidelines relevant to the diagnosis and management of children in primary care (that health workers are expected to implement at a country level) or to reflect most up-to-date relevant guidance not yet incorporated into national guidelines due to long guideline update cycles (e.g., WHO young infant guidelines).

To implement relevant guidance not yet incorporated into national or international guidelines (due to long guideline update cycles), particularly if extending scope.

To target focus for additional scope/content (on conditions with significant morbidity or mortality).

To incorporate flexibility within the algorithm (e.g., diagnostic and treatment advice differing based on location of facilities in high/low prevalence areas for diseases such as malaria).

To use work already conducted on translating narrative guidance into decision logic, including updates that may have been made over time based on implementation experience or novel diagnostic/treatment approaches that may have been evaluated elsewhere.

To advise which source documents (guidelines or other evidence) should be used as a basis for the algorithm.

To advise/review/validate interpretation of narrative guidelines/evidence translation to human-readable algorithm.