International Standards:

ICO Policy on International Guidelines and Standards

Draft, April 2003

1. The ICO will provide a repository of international guidelines and standards for clinical practice, education and research.

Biomedical Standards will be reviewed in the Standards Committee, Clinical Guidelines will be reviewed in the Guidelines Committee, and Educational Standards or Curricula will be reviewed in the Education Committee.

In case of doubt, the Secretary General will determine the Committee chosen for primary review.

Statements can be promulgated as ICO statements by the following process:

a) Initiatives may be suggested by various International Ophthalmic Societies, any ICO committee, or by the ICO itself. The ICO may also seek proposals from appropriate groups.

b) Proposals originating from an International Ophthalmic Society or any other source deemed valid by the ICO Executive Committee would be submitted to either the Education, the Guidelines or the Standards Committee for proposal review.

After review by the Education, Guidelines or Standards Committees the proposals will also be submitted to other appropriate international subspecialty groups impacted by the proposal; these groups will be given a fixed deadline for response.

c) When the Committee Review Process has concluded with a positive recommendation, the proposal is put on the agenda of the Advisory Committee for comment, and on the ICO agenda for action.

d) Once the proposal has been endorsed by the ICO it can be publicized e.g. by putting it on the ICO website and distributed for publication.

2. For any guidelines or standards included on or linked to the ICO Web site, a preamble will clearly state its purpose or target audience, the originating group, the date of origin and date of last review and the level of ICO endorsement.

In so far as possible, review and necessary revision should occur every three to four years.

3. For "Evidence Based" Guidelines the evidence cited and/or the consensus of experts should be clearly stated. Other standards should list the documentation on which they are based.

4. It is not the purpose of the ICO to rewrite guidelines or standards already published by qualified organizations. If the ICO so wishes it may review proposals and post them or link to the relevant Web site. These statements and guidelines would however not be formal ICO statements.

At the ICO’s discretion, it may choose to serve as a "filter" for such statements or it may just mention them and let the reader do the deciding.

Next: List of ICO Approved Standards

Also see: ICO Standards for Measurement of Vision Loss