The Endocrine Society Publishes Ten Clinical Practice Guidelines

To address the compelling need for state-of-the-art endocrine Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs), the Society has implemented a rigorous and innovative guideline development process. The Society selects topics by examining existing available guidelines and only undertakes development of those subjects for which there are no guidelines or where existing guidelines are either out of date or do not meet the needs of our members.

To date, ten CPGs have been published.  There are currently thirteen other CPGs in various stages of development; including two CPGs that are being revised.

New Guidelines for 2009:

• Hypertriglyceridemia
• Intensive Insulin Therapy for Hospital Patients
• Management of Anabolic Drugs for Osteoporosis in Men
• Hyperprolactinemia

Each guideline is created by a task force whose membership consists of experts in the field. These task forces rely on evidence-based reviews of the literature to provide support for the recommendations. The Society has contracted with the Knowledge and Encounter Research Unit of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, which uses the GRADE scheme for evidence review. This system takes into account relative strengths and weaknesses of the best available evidence. The GRADE scheme was recognized in ACP Journal Club as a state of the art approach that is “rigorous in its methodology, yet practical to use.”

Guidelines in Progress:

• Endocrine Treatment of Transsexual Persons–Wylie Hembree, MD, Chair
• Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia – Phyllis Speiser, MD, Chair
• Continuous Glucose Monitoring – David C. Klonoff, MD, FACP, Chair
•  Post Bariatric Surgery – David Heber, MD, Chair
•  Pituitary Incidentaloma – Pamela Freda, MD, Chair
• Vitamin D & Bone – Mike Holick, MD, Chair

Guidelines Currently being Revised:

• Testosterone Therapy in Adult Men with Androgen Deficiency Syndromes – Shalender Bhasin, MD, Chair
• Evaluation and Treatment of Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency – Mark Molitch, MD, Chair

According to the guideline development policy, each guideline will be considered for revision/updating three-years after its publication date. Both of the guidelines mentioned above were published in 2006. The Task Forces will be charged with reviewing recent developments in the respective field and determine if the recommendations have changed significantly enough to completely reformat the document or develop a brief addendum.  If the updates are significant, the Task Force will develop a summary of the changes and will revise the guideline accordingly.

 Published Guidelines:

• Evaluation and Management of Adult Hypoglycemic Disorders – Philip Cryer, MD, Chair
• Prevention and Treatment of Pediatric Obesity– Gilbert August, MD, Chair
• Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease & Type 2 Diabetes in Patients at Metabolic Risk – James Rosenzweig, MD, Chair
• Case Detection, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Patients with Primary Aldosteronsim – John Funder, MD, Chair
• The Diagnosis of Cushing's Syndrome – Lynette Nieman, MD, Chair
• Evaluation & Treatment of Hirsutism in Premenopausal Women– Kathryn Martin, MD, Chair
• Management of Thyroid Dysfunction during Pregnancy & Postpartum –Leslie DeGroot, MD, Chair
• Androgen Therapy in Women – Margaret Wierman, MD, Chair
• Testosterone Therapy in Adult Men with Androgen Deficiency Syndromes – Shalender Bhasin, MD, Chair
• Evaluation and Treatment of Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency– Mark Molitch, MD, Chair

Although the CPGs are not available for support, The Endocrine Society is currently working with health education media companies to produce enduring products to the Society’s Guidelines. These enduring products are available for support and will serve to increase awareness and potential usage of the guidelines. This includes items such as wall charts and pocket guides for physicians.

The Hormone Foundation also develops patient companion pieces to complement each CPG.  These guides are designed to help patients with specific endocrine-disorders to partner with their physicians to reach their treatment goals.  The Hormone Foundation patient guides are available for support and offer a unique opportunity for public exposure through patient education efforts. 

Please contact Anna Meenan at 301-951-2619 or ameenan@endo-society.org for more information on supporting guideline enduring materials or patient companion pieces.