Introduction
The individual cancer service lines at the Abramson Cancer Center at
Penn Medicine were delegated the responsibility of creating treatment
guidelines for the entire health system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purpose of these guidelines is to provide direction during the
pandemic for rational Head and Neck Cancer management and achieve a
medically and ethically appropriate balance of risks and benefits. Our
goal in sharing the guidelines are three-fold. First, it may be useful
to share the process of developing the guidelines and achieving
consensus in a multi-hospital tertiary care system. Second, we would
like to share our fundamental principles governing the guideline
development process. Lastly, the guidelines themselves may be useful for
Head and Neck Oncology services at other institutions to consider as
they develop their own approaches.