Methodological rigor and ethical considerations in guideline development are critical for the credibility of clinical practice guidelines. The goal of this conference was to provide a forum for discussion of issues related to international guideline development in general and KDIGO guideline development in particular. The conference was designed to address two primary topic areas. On Day 1, co-chaired by Katrin Uhlig and Alison MacLeod, methodological issues in the process of international guideline development were addressed. On Day 2, under the leadership of Robert Alpern and Charles van Ypersele, the discussions focused on the subject of transparency in guideline development, particularly as related to institutional and consultant conflict of interest.

Invited participants included the leadership of five principal guideline development organizations (CARI, CSN, EBPG, KDOQI, and UK-RA); their experts in the development and implementation of guidelines; medical ethicists; methodologists and professional journal editors. Both days started with presentations on related topics of importance, followed by breakout group sessions. Each breakout group was asked to deliberate on specific areas of the topic and then report their recommendations to the entire group for discussion and refinement. A position paper for this conference was not published.