Assessing and identifying the best practices for the treatment and management of ARDs.
Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are critical tools for managing occupational lung diseases, bridging medical evidence and patient care, helping to establish consistent diagnostic criteria to ensure accurate disease identification.
In conjunction with the University of Sydney, ASSEA has conducted a survey of CPGs, both in Australia and internationally, that concern the asbestos-related disease asbestosis, and silica-related diseases, the aim being to evaluate the quality and comprehensiveness of these documents.
Australia was found to be poorly served by guidelines for asbestosis, but have high quality guidelines for silica-related diseases. Internationally, only a small number of countries were recorded as having high quality guidelines for either asbestosis or silica-related diseases.
We hope to publish these findings and that they will help prompt countries worldwide to review their current CPGs.