Co-convenors: Holger Schünemann and Gordon Guyatt 

 

Dr. Holger Schünemann is chair of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University, widely considered the birthplace of evidence-based medicine. He trained in internal medicine, epidemiology and preventive medicine. Having contributed to over 400 peer-reviewed publications (across a broad area of health care questions) he is co-chair of the GRADE working group, co-director of the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating center for evidence informed policy-making, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Guideline International Network, the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group, and several other committees. He led or participated in numerous high profile guideline panels, including at the WHO, the American College of Physicians, American Thoracic Society, the World Allergy Organization and he was a key contributor to the revised methods for WHO guideline development in 2006. For the past 15 years, he has been advisor to ministries of health and other governmental organizations for their guideline programs. His work also focuses on practical application of his work by researchers and clinicians through contributions to the guideline development tool (www.gradepro.org), the guideline checklist (cebgrade.mcmaster.ca/guidecheck.html) and GRADE evidence to decision frameworks (www.decide-collaboration.eu). Maintaining an active clinical practice fulfills his passion for patient care and ensures his research is people-oriented.

Dr. Gordon Guyatt is a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University. He has published over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals; his work has been cited over 75,000 times. In 1990, he coined the term ‘evidence-based medicine’ and has since provided leadership in developing the methods for evidence-based clinical decision making. He has advanced methods of health status measurement, clinical trials, systematic review methods, and guideline development. He has played a major role in the creation and refinement of the GRADE approach to rating quality of evidence and grading strength of recommendations.

 

Contact:  for questions about the Cochrane GRADEing, please contact Holger Schünemann: schuneh@mcmaster.ca