Task Forces and Guidelines

ERS provides financial support to groups of members looking to form a task force to produce Guidelines, Statements and Technical Standards. Once published, the documents provide clarity and direction for a number of topics in respiratory medicine with the aim of improving clinical practice.

All ERS members are eligible to apply for funding to set up a Task Force.

Task Forces are ad hoc groups set up to address a specific issue in respiratory medicine. They aim to produce Clinical Practice Guidelines, Statements or Technical Standards that then are adopted as official ERS documents on issues related to respiratory medicine.

The new ERS Short Guideline and Short Statement are designed to respond very quickly to the release of new evidence that could lead to marked changes in clinical practice. As a result, the ERS offers to his members support to address, whenever required, burning questions on which urgent and precise reactions are required. Short guidance projects are divided into 2 types of documents:

  • Short guidelines, developed according to the GRADE approach and aiming at providing clinical research recommendation
  • Short statements, based on a systematic literature search but without grading of the evidence. These documents cannot contain clinical practice recommendation.

Both type of manuscripts are intended to be concise, very focused and developed within a maximum of 1 year.

The ERS also encourages the development of joint documents with other socities. ERS members involved in a Task Force with another society are therefore encouraged to contact the ERS Guidelines Working Group (at scientific@ersnet.org) to discuss the opportunity to develop a joint project.

Once published, manuscripts developed by ERS Task Forces are made available on the ERS E-learning website.

How to apply for funding

ERS Task Forces: Guideline, Statement and Technical Standard

ERS accepts applications for new Task Forces twice a year:

  • 1 February
  • 1 June

Priority will be given to projects which aim to develop official ERS Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Important: only proposals fully filled in (including Task Force members' Conflict of Interest (COI) forms) will be reviewed. Applicants who submit an incomplete proposal will be asked to resubmit it at the next deadline. Should you have any questions regarding the application form, please do not hesitate to contact the ERS Office prior to the deadline.

Important documents:

ERS Short Guideline and Short Statement

ERS accepts application for Short Guideline and Short Statement year-round.

Important: only proposals fully filled in (including Task Force members' Conflict of Interest (COI) forms) will be reviewed. Applicants who submit an incomplete proposal will be asked to resubmit it at the next deadline. Should you have any questions regarding the application form, please do not hesitate to contact the ERS Office prior to the deadline.

Important documents:

ERS/ATS joint Task Forces

The next deadline to submit an ERS/ATS Task Force proposal is July 2020 (late submissions will not be accepted).

You may refere to the following files for further instructions:

Should you have any question on joint ERS/ATS task force proposal, please contact guidelines_statements@ersnet.org.

All ERS members are eligible to apply for funding to set up a Task Force aiming to develop Clinical Practice Guidelines, Statements or Technical Standard Assessments.

Task Forces joint with other societies (except ATS)

ERS also encourages the development of joint documents with other societies. If you are an ERS member involved in a Task Force with another society, contact the ERS Guidelines Working Group (at guidelines_statements@ersnet.org) to discuss the opportunity to develop an official joint project.

For any other questions, please contact the ERS office at guidelines_statements@ersnet.org.

Methodological Support and patients' involvement

Useful documents:

The ERS has two in-house methodologists who can help the Task Force Chairs apply a correct methodology throughout their Task Force development. They can also be contacted for any questions relating to the completion of an application. Any questions for the ERS methodologists can be sent to scientific@ersnet.org.

SUGGESTED TIMELINES TO DEVELOP TASK FORCE DOCUMENTS:

AGREE TOOL

The ERS Science Council recommends to use the AGREE tool to develop Guidelines. Please consult the AGREE website.

Ongoing Task Forces

Task Force Number Task Force Name Task Force Chairs
TF-2019-03 ERS Statement on dyspnea in acutelly ill mechanically ventilated patients Alexandre Demoule, Leo Heunks
TF-2019-01 ERS Statement on pediatric long-term NIV Brigitte Fauroux, Stijn Verhulst
TF-2018-17 Short Clinical Practice Guideline on: European Respiratory Guideline on inhaled corticosteroid use and withdrawal in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease James Chalmers, Marc Miravitlles
TF-2018-14 Statement on: Statement on combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) Vincent Cottin
TF-2018-11 Technical Standard on: Updated Technical Standards for Interpretive Strategies for Basic Lung Function Tests Sanja Stanojevic, David Kaminsky
TF-2018-16 Statement on: Treatment of Lung Cancer Stage 1A Mina Gaga, Hans-Ulrich Kauczor
TF-2018-15 Statement on: Lung Cancer Stage 1A Nir Peled, Hans-Ulrich Kauczor
TF-2018-08 Statement on: ERS Statement on diagnosis and investigation of central sleep apnoea in children aged 1 month to 18 years Hui-Leng Tan
TF-2018-07 Techincal Standards on: Developing Lung Function Initiative (GLI) reference equations for exhaled and nasal nitric oxide Anh-Tuan Dinh-Xuan, Graham Hall
TF-2018-05 Statement on: Thoracic Ultrasound Clinical Practice Guidelines Christian B. Laursen, Nick Maskell
TF-2018-04 Statement on: Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension Marion Delcroix, Gerald Simonneau, Mayer Eckhard
TF-2018-03 Guidelines on: Task force on bronchiectasis guideline in children Ahmad Kantar, Anne Chang
TF-2018-02 Guidelines on: Diagnosis of Asthma in adults Louis Renaud, Usmani Omar
TF-2018-01 Guidelines on: Non-CPAP Therapies for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Winfried Randerath, Johan Verbraecken
TF-2017-09 Statement on: Updated technical standards for spirometry Brian Graham, Irene Steenbruggen
TF-2017-06 Guidelines on: Evidence based clinical practice guideline on the diagnosis of asthma in children aged 5 to 16 years Erol Gaillard, Alexander Moller
TF-2017-04 Statement on: ERS Statement for the Interpretation of Nitric Oxide Uptake in the Lung Anh-Tuan Dinh-Xuan, Gerald Zavorsky
TF-2017-03 Guidelines on: International Guidelines for the management of severe Community acquired pneumonia Antoni Torres, Ignacio Martin-Loeches
TF-2017-01 Guidelines on: Long term non-invasive ventilation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Wolfram Windisch, Raffaele Scala
TF-2016-23 Statement on: Development of ERS/TSANZ Statement - Care of patients with airways disease during pregnancy Peter Middleton, Vibeke Backer
TF-2016-22 Guidelines on: ERS Cough Guidelines 2017 Alyn Morice, Eva Millqvist
TF-2016-21 Statement on: Tracheomalacia and bronchomalacia in children Kostas Priftis, Colin Wallis
TF-2016-16 Guidelines on: International ERS/ATS guidelines on definition, evaluation and treatment of severe asthma Fernando Holguin, Andy Bush
TF-2016-10 Guidelines on: Sarcoidosis treatment Bob Baughman, Dominique Valeyre
TF-2016-08 Statement on: Sleepiness and fitness to drive in patients with obstructive sleep apnea Maria Bonsignore, Walter McNicholas
TF-2016-07 Statement on: Standardizing definitions and outcome measures in acute bronchiolitis Ricardo Fernandes, Mark Everard
TF-2016-05 Statement on: Sleep disorders and Stroke Claudio Bassetti, Winfried Randerath
TF-2016-01 Statement on: Chest imaging in Acute Respiratory Failure Davide Chiumello, Paolo Navalesi
TF-2015-19 Statement on: Global Lung Function Initiative (GLI): Deriving global multi-ethnic reference values for the measurement of lung volumes Graham Hall, Brendan Cooper
TF-2015-18 Guidelines on: Long term management of bronchopulmonary dysplasia Liesbeth Duijts, Marielle Pijnenburg, Charles Roehr
TF-2015-16 Statement on: Understanding of and Adherence to International Guidelines in the Management of Stable Asthma by Non-Specialists. Indications for Specialist Referral Mathioudakis Alexandros, Olympia Tsilochristou, Christer Janson, Ioana Agache
TF-2015-06 Statement on : Severe Asthma Mina Gaga
TF-2014-23 Guidelines on : European guidelines from the ERS-EACTS-ESTRO for the management of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma patients Giuseppe Cardillo, Arnaud Sherpereel
TF-2014-21 Guidelines on : MDR TB Guidelines Giovanni Battista Migliori, Payam Nahid
TF-2014-17 Techincal Standard on : ATS/ERS Statement on Technical Standards for The Forced Oscillation Technique Gregory King, Ellie Oostveen
TF-2014-02 Technology reviews, assesments and standards on : TF-Diagnosis Sleep Disordered Breathing Renata Riha, Wilfried de Backer
TF-2013-15 Guidelines on : The management of diseases caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria C. Lange, J. Van Ingen
TF-2013-13 Statement on : Functional evaluation of lung and airways: building a flow chart for a comprehensive, multifaceted, evidence-based use of the different techniques Andrea Aliverti, W. De Backer
TF-2013-08 Statement on : Thoracic complications of connective tissue diseases: a consensus statement Athol Wells, Chris Denton