European Stroke Organisation (ESO) standard operating procedure for white papers (expert consensus based clinical guidance).

Abstract

Promoting the highest quality, evidence-based research across Europe is a priority of the European Stroke Organisation (ESO). The ESO Guideline Board communicate and promote evidence-based recommendations for clinical practice through their Guidelines. However, there are many aspects of stroke care where robust scientific evidence may be unavailable or difficult to obtain. Thus, there is a need for practical, consensus guidance, produced following robust, consistent, and transparent methods, that is suitable for high-priority clinical scenarios where evidence is currently lacking. The ESO Guideline Board developed methods for producing practical clinical guidance based on expert consensus in response to this need. These ESO' White Papers' are intended to complement standard ESO Guidelines. Here, we outline the ESO White Papers' standard operating procedure (SOP). We will describe the motivation for creating White Papers, the preferred composition of writing groups and expert consensus panellists, the methods for achieving consensus, and how results will be communicated. To ensure that all voting members have an equal voice, our methods are based upon the Delphi process of repeated rounds of anonymous voting, feedback and review. We hope that the White Papers will add further value to the clinical practice guidance that is offered by ESO. We look forward to receiving suggestions for White Paper topics from the stroke community.