Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) and Consensus Reports are developed by the appropriate/pertinent committees (Practice Affairs, Endoscopy, Pediatrics, Hepatobiliary, Ethics) or individual members with a particular interest, on behalf of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) in order to outline the clinical approach to management problems or training issues.  After preparation, based on a review of the literature, each guideline/consensus report is made available to the CAG membership for review.  Finally, the guideline/consensus report is presented to the CAG Governing Board for further review and final approval.

CPGs and Consensus Reports are intended to give an understanding of a clinical problem and outline one or more preferred approaches to investigation and management of the problem.  While CPGs are intended to be useful to all physicians, it is recognized that specialists may rely less on practice guidelines than those in more general practice.  These guidelines are intended to give a practical approach to a problem based on the current literature, but are not intended to be state-of-the-art reviews with extensive references.  Consensus reports are derived in line with accepted literature surrounding the process and production of Consensus documents, and as such, provide an extensive and complete review of the literature.  More recently completed Consensus Reports have been developed in accordance with literature on accepted consensus process.  Download a copy of the CAG position surrounding the development of CPGs.

CPGs and Consensus Reports are developed to be of assistance to practising clinicians and are not intended to be the only approach to the management of clinical problems, nor are they intended to be considered as a ‘standard of care’.  The CAG recognizes that clinical circumstances may at times justify an approach different from that outlined in a practice guideline.  It is also recognized that new developments in medical research and clinical practice may require subsequent changes to the practice guideline.