27August 2025, Cairo, Egypt – Between 11 and 12 August 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in Egypt, in collaboration with the Egyptian Health Council (EHC), convened a national training workshop for methodologists on guideline adaptation using Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology and the WHO guideline template.
The 2-day workshop, held in Alexandria, brought together 20 health care professionals from national entities, including methodologists, members of guideline development groups and academic partners.
The training aimed to strengthen Egypt’s National Clinical Guidelines Programme by building the capacities of national methodologists, ensuring scientific rigour and sustainability, and supporting ongoing health system reforms and the rollout of universal health insurance. By building local expertise, the workshop contributes to the standardization of health care practices, ultimately enhancing quality of care, patient safety and health outcomes across the country.
The WHO team, led by Health Systems Coordinator Dr Gasser Gad El-Kareem, with technical support from WHO Consultant for Patient Safety Dr Riham El-Asady and Public Health Officer Dr Amira Hegazy, coordinated the workshop with EHC, represented in this meeting by EHC International Affairs Representative Dr Hla Abdelmoaty Ahmed. Expert facilitators Dr Yasser Sami Amer, Certified Guideline Methodologist and a member of the Guidelines International Network at the King Saud University Medical City in Saudi Arabia, and Professor Dr Mohammed Mourad Youssif, Director of the National Clinical Guidelines Programme in Egypt, guided participants through core methodological processes and the development of context-sensitive, actionable recommendations
Participants were introduced to the GRADE system, an internationally recognized approach to assessing the certainty of evidence and the strength of health care recommendations. They also practiced searching for evidence and guideline appraisal, and applying the WHO guideline template, a standardized framework that ensures clinical guidelines are clear, evidence-based and aligned with global best practices.
The sessions combined lectures, case-based exercises, hands-on training and group discussions.
WHO Egypt continues to provide technical support, mentorship and access to international tools and platforms. Meanwhile, EHC will institutionalize guideline adaptation as a core function, develop a national cadre of trained methodologists and invest in sustainable training and dissemination strategies.