Page 30 - 15Diarrhoeaandvomiting

Scope and methodology

For printed copies, phone NICE publications on 0845 003 7783 or e-mail publications@nice.org.
uk (quote reference number N1845).

1.6 Who has developed the guideline?

The guideline was developed by a multi-professional and lay working group (the Guideline
Development Group or GDG) convened by the National Collaborating Centre for Women’s and
Children’s Health (NCC-WCH). The membership included:
• two paediatric gastroenterologists (including the Chair)
• two general paediatricians, one of whom was a community paediatrician
• one paediatric specialist in infectious diseases
• one emergency department paediatric specialist
• three general practitioners
• three nurses, including one emergency nurse practitioner
• one nurse with expertise in remote assessment through a role in NHS Direct
• two patient/parent/carer members.
Staff from the NCC-WCH provided methodological support for the guideline development
process, undertook systematic searches, retrieval and appraisal of the evidence, health economics
modelling and, together with the Chair, wrote successive drafts of the guideline.
All GDG members’ interests were recorded on declaration forms provided by NICE. The form
covered consultancies, fee-paid work, shareholdings, fellowships and support from the healthcare
industry.

1.7 Guideline development methodology

This guideline was commissioned by NICE and developed in accordance with the guideline
development process outlined in the NICE Technical Manual. 26

1.7.1 Literature search strategy
Initial scoping searches were executed to identify relevant guidelines (local, national and
international) produced by other development groups. The reference lists in these guidelines
were checked against subsequent searches to identify missing evidence.
Relevant published evidence to inform the guideline development process and answer the clinical
questions was identified by systematic search strategies. Additionally, stakeholder organisations
were invited to submit evidence for consideration by the GDG provided it was relevant to the
clinical questions and of equivalent or better quality than evidence identified by the search
strategies.

Systematic searches to answer the clinical questions formulated and agreed by the GDG were
executed using the following databases on the OVID platform: MEDLINE (1950 onwards); Embase
(1980 onwards); Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (1982 onwards);
Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (1991 to 3rd quarter 2008); Cochrane Database of
Systematic Reviews (3rd quarter 2008); and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (1991 to
3rd quarter 2008).
Search strategies combined relevant controlled vocabulary and natural language in an effort to
balance sensitivity and specificity. Unless advised by the GDG, searches were not date specific.
Language restrictions were applied to searches – searches were limited to English language
papers only. Both generic and specially developed methodological search filters were used
appropriately.

Searches to identify economic studies were undertaken using MEDLINE (1950 onwards); Embase
(1980 onwards); the Health Technology Assessment database (2nd quarter 2008); and the NHS
Economic Evaluations Database (NHS EED, 2nd quarter 2008) produced by the Centre for
Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York.

5