Trustworthy clinical guidelines.

Overview

Title:

Trustworthy clinical guidelines.

Authors:

Laine C, Taichman DB, Mulrow C

Journal:

Ann. Intern. Med.

Publication date:

2011

Volume:

154

Issue:

11

First page:

774

Last page:

5

ISSN:

1539-3704

Link to pubmed:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21646561

Publication type:

Journal

Free text

A dizzying array of diagnostic and therapeutic options, along with the wide variation in evidence to support them, challenges the provision of rational medical care. Clinical guidelines should bring order to this chaos. Yet, the development of thousands of clinical practice guidelines by hundreds of groups in dozens of countries creates its own tangle for clinicians to unravel. Guidelines could very well become part of the very problem they aim to solve. How can busy clinicians struggling to do what is best for their patients identify guidelines that they can trust?

Common concerns about guidelines relate to the quality of the evidence base that supports them (1), a lack of clarity about the degree to which opinion rather than evidence shapes the recommendations (2), conflicts of interest among guideline developers (3, 4), inadequate recognition of the heterogeneity of patient characteristics and preferences (5), and the feasibility of implementation (6). Such concerns and a charge included in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 prompted the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to release a set of rigorous standards for developing high-quality clinical practice guidelines …

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Trustworthy clinical guidelines. Laine C, Taichman DB, Mulrow C. Ann. Intern. Med. 2011; 154(11):774-5.