[The new methodology to produce instruments for updating occupational physician proposed by Italian Society of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene (SIMLII)]

Starting from the experience of last five years, during which 24 guide liens about the most important aspects of Occupational Physician activity have been produced, the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene (SIMLII) delegated a specific working group for updating the methodology to be adopted for guide lines and other instruments for improving and standardizing the current activity in our professional field. SIMLII produced in the context of the specific Education and Accreditation Programme for occupational physicians prepared from 2002 25 guide lines or other informative instruments on the most important and controversial themes in which our discipline is involved. They were considered and treated to meet the need to improve and standardise activities and to modify the current approach of occupational physicians and aimed not only at improving the effectiveness of preventive actions but also at constantly adopting rigorous methodologies based where possible on evidence based or on consensus procedures. The Directive of SIMLII was firmly convinced about the opportunity-necessity to critically evaluate the experience carried out during the last years, at the light of the National Program for Guide Lines edited By Italian National Health Institute since 2002 and which concerns preparation, dissemination, updating, implementation of guide lines in Medicine. The guide lines were defined as rational critical effective aid addressed to professionals and patients for health services organization. Relevant was the new Framework Act for the occupational safety and health (Decreto legislativo 81/08) too signed by the President of the Italian Republic on April 9, 2008, which for the first time includes and defines in a legislative act the different possible instruments (technical normative, good practices, guide lines). In this paper we present the new methodology defined by our Society for producing the different kind of instruments such as guide lines, consensus conference reports, technology assessments, good practices statements guide lines focusing as the main aspects those related to definitions, argument choice, working group and coordinator identification, producing methods, evidence evaluation, grading, quality evaluation using AGREE method, dissemination procedure, the conflict of interest and the possible use for distance formation procedure focusing the recommendations that take a practical-applicative approach.