Implementation of recommendations in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: Considerations for development and uptake

A clinical guideline is a document with the aim of guiding decisions based on evidence
regarding diagnosis, management, and treatment in specific areas of health care.
Specific to rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), adherence to clinical
guidelines recommendations impacts the outcomes of people with these diseases.
However, currently, the implementation of recommendations is less than optimal in
rheumatology.
The World Health Organization has described the implementation of evidence-based
recommendations as one of the greatest challenges facing the global health community
and has identified the importance of scaling up these recommendations. But closing the
evidence-to-practice gap is often complex, time consuming and difficult. In this context,
the implementation science offers a framework to overcome this scenario.
This article describes the principles of implementation science to facilitate and optimise
the implementation of clinical recommendations in RMDs. Embedding implementation
science methods and techniques into recommendation development and daily practice
can help maximise the likelihood that implementation is successful in improving the
quality of healthcare and healthcare services.