Consensus process

Each working group assessed changes in clinical practice and new evidence supporting updates to current diagnostic criteria:

• From June 2021 through March 2022, working groups convened independently (2-3 meetings/group) and then returned recommendations to the entire committee.
• Proposed revisions to the ARDS definition from each working group were discussed by the entire Committee during six video conferences.

After discussion by the committee, the working group recommendations were incorporated into a draft of the updated ARDS definition.

Comments and revisions were invited on multiple drafts before convening a meeting at which the final proposed changes were discussed:

• The committee members agreed unanimously to use a simple, confidential super majority vote for approval (defined as 70% or greater agreement).
• The committee did not use the comprehensive processes described for development of clinical practice guidelines because the goal was to update the widely used definition for a clinical syndrome.

The final revised definition received 100% approval from committee members.