Glossary

There are four levels of knowledge representation for clinical practice guidelines (CPGs).

• L1 Narrative: The knowledge is human-readable and in an unstructured format. This knowledge can be used as an input for crafting policies or making decisions. The structure does not allow machines to utilize knowledge.
• L2 Semi-structured: This level has some structure, paving the way for clinical domain experts to interpret. HUMAN READABLE
• L3 Structured: This adds a machine-interpretable structure to the knowledge representation. Knowledge can be shared across settings and systems. There may be subjectivity in knowledge interpretation. COMPUTER READABLE
• L4 Executable: This format enables not only machine-readable knowledge representation, but also machine-executable knowledge representation based on the patient’s clinical context with a specific type of clinical decision support tool. CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT

A living guideline uses the results of a living systematic review and determines whether a guideline needs new guideline recommendations or needs modifications to existing guideline recommendations as new evidence emerges. Akl, E. A., Meerpohl, J. J., Elliott, J., Kahale, L. A., Schünemann, H. J., & the members of Living Systematic Review Network. (2017). Living systematic reviews: 4. Living guideline recommendations. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 91, 47-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.08.009

A living systematic review uses the same processes as other systematic reviews but is continually updated, based on frequent searches of the literature, with the incorporation of relevant new evidence as it becomes available. Cochrane Community. (n.d.) Living systematic reviews. Retrieved March 20, 2024, from https://community.cochrane.org/review-production/production-resources/living-systematic-reviews

A logic model is a graphic depiction (road map) representing the shared relationships among the resources, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact for the evaluation of a proposed guideline. This visual framework shows the critical logical premises and presumed relationships among intermediate, surrogate, and ultimate health outcomes related to a specified clinical question. Woolf, S., Schünemann, H. J., Eccles, M. P., Grimshaw, J. M., & Shekelle, P. (2012). Developing clinical practice guidelines: types of evidence and outcomes; values and economics, synthesis, grading, and presentation and deriving recommendations. Implementation Science, 7(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-7-61