The World Health Organization has become a founding member of the new Guidelines International Network (GIN). This is a major new international collaboration involving organizations from around the world. GIN seeks to improve the quality of health care by promoting systematic development of clinical practice guidelines and their application into practice. GIN’s aims are:

• To facilitate information sharing, education and knowledge transfer, and collaborative working between guideline programmes to promote best practice and avoid duplication of effort.

• To improve and harmonize methodologies for systematic guideline development in existing and new guideline programmes.

• To improve methodologies for dissemination and implementation of clinical practice guidelines and evaluation of their effects.

• To identify priorities for and support research relating to guideline development, dissemination, implementation, and evaluation; and to facilitate the application of research findings into practice.

• To build links between organizations to improve coordination with other health care quality initiatives.

So far, about forty organizations dealing with guideline development and quality of care from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA have become founding members, at EUR 2500 per year.

WHO has become a founding member with the aim of representing the global perspective, and especially the developing country perspective. WHO has also negotiated a limited number of subsidized GIN memberships for organizations from developing countries.

Reference: Guidelines International Network, PO Box 13163, Duns, TD11 3YT, UK. Tel: +44.1361.884012, Fax: +44.1361.884013 e-mail: info@guidelinesinternational.net. http://www.guidelines-international.net