Yesterday, IDSA spokesperson Diane Olson informed LymeDisease.org that they hope to complete the new guideline development process within 2-5 years. It takes time to actually review evidence using the GRADE process—which is now required by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). When I sat on the guidelines panel for the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), we took roughly three years to evaluate and analyze the evidence.
Currently, the ILADS guidelines are the only Lyme disease guidelines listed on the National Guidelines Clearinghouse, which requires that guidelines comply with the IOM standards for creating trustworthy guidelines. (The NGC is a federal government database that lists guidelines meeting evidentiary and other requirements established by the IOM.) The IDSA guidelines were removed from the NGC because they were outdated and failed to meet the IOM standards for trustworthiness.
So far it all sounds like good news, right? Yes, but. . . The IDSA guidelines are still posted on the website of the Centers of Disease Control...