Objective To evaluate the consensus approach application for Chinese medicine clinical practice guidelines developed in recent 5 years. Methods Chinese medicine clinical practice guidelines were reviewed which were collected in China National Knowledge Infrastructure

Wan Fang Data and VIP Data from 2010 to 2014.The guidelines essential characteristics

types of consensus approach

expert information and demonstration rounds were analyzed. Results In 125 Chinese medicine guidelines included

46 guidelines did not describe the developing methods; the other 79 guidelines adopted consensus conference method. Forty-one guidelines applied Delphi method at the same time. In 11 guidelines

the final consensus was formed by the voting method. The number of experts in consensus conference method was 9 to 128

with median of 39. The average demonstration rounds were 1. 6 ±0. 9. The median of experts’ number in Delphi method was 40. The average demonstration rounds were 2. 8 ± 0. 4. In the guidelines included

9 expert groups were composed of multi discipline personnel. Conclusion At present

in the process of developing Chinese medicine clinical practice guidelines

the application of consensus approach lacked normalization and adequacy.