European College of Equine Internal Medicine

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ECEIM Consensus Statement Guidelines

Consensus Statements of the European College of Equine Internal Medicine (ECEIM) provide veterinarians with guidelines regarding the pathophysiology, diagnosis, or treatment of equine internal medicine diseases. The foundation of the Consensus Statement is evidence-based medicine, but if such evidence is conflicting or lacking the panel provides interpretive recommendations based on their collective expertise. The Consensus Statement is intended to be a guide for veterinarians, but it is not a statement of standard of care or a substitute for clinical judgment. Topics of statements and panel members to draft the statements are selected by the Board of ECEIM with input from the general membership. A draft is prepared and input from Diplomates is solicited via the ECEIM website and email and incorporated in a final version. This Consensus Statement is approved by the Board of ECEIM before publication in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.
The ECEIM Board member supervising the consensus statements is the Vice President.

Procedures for formulating the Consensus Statements:

  1. Topics and potential chairpersons should be solicited by the ECEIM Board from the general membership by February 1. The board will vote on acceptance, with a maximum of one consensus statement per year.
  2. After Board approval, the supervising ECEIM Board member will provide each of the approved chairpersons with this contract for immediate signature.
  3. Chairpersons will have the following responsibilities:
  1. Establish a panel of experts that agree to formulate the consensus statement. The panel may consist of up to 7 total members (1 chair and 6 additional panel members), of which at least half of the members should be Diplomates of ECEIM. Panel members shall consist of individuals with recognized expertise on the topic of discussion, i.e., those who will be able to provide a valuable variety and unique contribution to the consensus statement of opinions. The names of the panel members should be reported to the ECEIM Board by March 1st and Board approval will happen via an e-mail vote by March15th. Any potential conflict of interests should be disclosed at this time. A sample list of conflicts of interests is attached to this document. Once approved, the supervising ECEIM Board member will send each panel member this agreement for signature.b
  2. The chairperson is responsible for coordinating the panel’s efforts on establishing the consensus statement. The panelists can establish communication by one or several methods including (but not limited to) e-mail conversations, conference calls, or meeting in person. Establishment of a listserve for the sole purpose of panel discussion is highly effective. Some resources for formulating consensus statements may be found at:
    www.agreecollaboration.org
    www.journals.uchicago.edu/IDSA/guidelines
    www.guideline.gov/www.acvim.org
    Major recommendations in the Consensus Statement should be discrete, concrete, and identifiable, such that they may be bulleted, printed in bold face, or used as section subtitles in the document for quick reference. Areas of “ignorance” should be identified and future research needs should be prioritized.
  3. The chairperson will present the “draft” consensus statement in a 40 minute oral presentation at ECEIM congress. The consensus statement will not appear in written format in the Forum proceedings. However, the panel is highly encouraged to have a written working copy of the statement prepared by the time of the Congress.
  4. The chairperson will be the first author on the written consensus statement. The consensus statement must be prepared in a format suitable for publication in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.
    The authors must adhere to a 10,000 word limit, including references, tables and figures.
    The completed consensus statement manuscript must be submitted to the supervising ECEIM Board member by December 31st of the same calendar year that the statement is presented at the ECEIM Congress, at which time it is posted on the ECEIM website for a period of 1 month to allow for comments from the ECEIM Diplomates. The panelists will then consider comments from the general membership, and will provide a revised written manuscript to the ECEIM Board and the editors of the JVIM by February 15th of the calendar year following the oral presentation at the ECEIM Congress. Once submitted, any revisions by the JVIM editors will be solely for format and/or grammar and will not be for the purposes of scientific review of actual content, which is the sole responsibility of the authors.
  5. The supervising ECEIM Board member will provide a final written copy of the consensus statement to the ECEIM Board and the editors of JVIM by March 25th of the calendar year following the oral presentation at the Congress. The chairperson will determine the order of authorship, based on contributions of the panel members to preparation of the manuscript. The authors shall adhere to the “instructions for authors” for JVIM. The authors acknowledge that JVIM editorial oversight is not a scientific review but a grammatical and formatting process. The authors are solely responsible for scientific content. The published consensus statements will be preceded by a “preamble” which will explain the intended purpose of ECEIM’s consensus statements (see below). The title will clearly reflect that the intended purpose of the manuscript is to provide a “consensus statement” so that all consensus statements can be easily tracked by on-line medical searches. The final published version of the Consensus Statements will be posted on the ECEIM website.

    Published Preamble

    “Consensus Statements of the European College of Equine Internal Medicine (ECEIM) provide the veterinary community with up-to-date information on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of clinically important animal diseases. The ECEIM Board oversees selection of relevant topics, identification of panel members for each topic with the expertise to draft the statements, and other aspects of assuring the integrity of the process. The statements are derived from evidence-based medicine whenever possible and the panel offers interpretive comments when such evidence is inadequate or contradictory. A draft is prepared by the panel, followed by solicitation of input by the ECEIM membership which may be incorporated into the statement. It is then submitted to the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, where it is edited prior to publication. The authors are solely responsible for the content of the statements.”
     

  6. If for any reason the chairperson is unable to complete his/her assigned tasks, upon recommendation of the supervising ECEIM Board member and approval of the ECEIM Board, a panel member may be selected to replace the chairperson.
    If panel members accept the responsibility of becoming a panel member, then they are expected to actively participate in the discussions formulating the consensus statement and in preparing the oral draft statement and written statements. If a panel member withdraws from participation, they must immediately inform the chairperson who will then determine if a replacement panelist is needed. If the chairperson has difficulty in soliciting input from a panel member, the chairperson may request removal of that person from the panel.

I have read the above information and I agree to fulfill my obligations as detailed. I am the chairperson panelist for

(Title of consensus statement)

Contributor’s signature and date

Title

Mailing address

Phone

E-mail address

Fax

Disclosure of Professional Relationships Related to the ECEIM Consensus Statement Committee Member:
In the past 5 years, I have served as paid consultant for the following companies or agencies related to consensus statement topic (please list companies or agencies, year, and nature of consultancy):

 

In the past 5 years, I have conducted contract or paid research for the following companies or agencies related to the consensus statement topic (please list companies or agencies, year, and nature of research):

 

In the past 5 years, I have received competitive research grants related to the consensus statement topic (please list companies or agencies, year, and nature of research):

 

I have ownership, or a family member that has ownership of stock or shares in companies or agencies related to the consensus statement. If yes, please provide details.

 

Other professional relationships from the past 5 years that might be considered to affect or bias your position regarding the consensus statement topic (please explain briefly but fully):