BMJ 1998;317:427-428 ( 15 August )

Editorials

Guidelines for clinical guidelines

A simple, pragmatic strategy for guideline development 

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Clinical guidelines are systematically developed statements designed to help practitioners and patients make decisions about appropriate health care for specific circumstances.¹ Clinicians are being inundated by a tidal wave of guidelines. In Britain alone, regional programmes for audit have recently developed about 2000 guidelines or protocols.² In addition to numerous clinical guidelines, a number of "guidelines for guidelines" have been produced, ranging from simple³ to complex.⁴ These reflect the increasing attention being paid to the methodology of guidelines development and the validity of guideline recommendations. While we support the increasingly rigorous approach taken to guideline development, it is important to re-emphasise the central role of guidelines themselves, which is to help clinicians make better decisions.

Clinicians need simple, patient specific, user friendly guidelines. We highlight three key components for such guidelines. The first is the explicit identification of the major decisions, relevant to patients, which have to be made, and the . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Guidelines for clinical guidelines should distinguish between national and local production

J G Williams
BMJ 1999 318: 942. [Extract] [Full Text]

Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow
BMJ 1998 317: 0. [Full Text]

Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow
BMJ 1998 317: 0. [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Goodacre, S (2006). Safe discharge: an irrational, unhelpful and unachievable concept.. Emerg. Med. J. 23: 753-755 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Michie, S, Lester, K (2005). Words matter: increasing the implementation of clinical guidelines. Qual Saf Health Care 14: 367-370 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Timmermans, S., Mauck, A. (2005). The Promises And Pitfalls Of Evidence-Based Medicine. Health Aff (Millwood) 24: 18-28 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Oosterhuis, W. P., Bruns, D. E., Watine, J., Sandberg, S., Horvath, A. R. (2004). Evidence-Based Guidelines in Laboratory Medicine: Principles and Methods. Clin. Chem. 50: 806-818 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• BRUCE, M. (2003). Development of Croydon's Primary Care Protocols for Common Mental Illnesses 2001: a bottom-up approach. Psychiatr. Bull. 27: 221-224 [Full text]  
• Nathwani, D. (2003). From evidence-based guideline methodology to quality of care standards. J Antimicrob Chemother 51: 1103-1107 [Full text]  
• Hobbs, F. R., Erhardt, L. (2002). Acceptance of guideline recommendations and perceived implementation of coronary heart disease prevention among primary care physicians in five European countries: the Reassessing European Attitudes about Cardiovascular Treatment (REACT) survey. Fam Pract 19: 596-604 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Benjamin, E. J., Smith, S. C. Jr, Cooper, R. S., Hill, M. N., Luepker, R. V. (2002). Task Force #1--magnitude of the prevention problem: opportunities and challenges. J Am Coll Cardiol 40: 588-603 [Full text]  
• Mendis, D, El-Shanawany, T, Mathur, A, Redington, A E (2002). Management of spontaneous pneumothorax: are British Thoracic Society guidelines being followed?. Postgrad. Med. J. 78: 80-84 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Lagerlov, P., Hjortdahl, P., Saxegaard, L., Andrew, M., Matheson, I. (2001). Structuring prescribing data into traffic-light categories; a tool for evaluating treatment quality in primary care. Fam Pract 18: 528-533 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Adams, C. E., Gilbody, S. (2001). ""Nobody ever expects the Spanish Inquisition"" (Python, 1991). Psychiatr. Bull. 25: 291-292 [Full text]  
• Peveler, R., Kendrick, T. (2001). Treatment delivery and guidelines in primary care: Depression and public health. Br Med Bull 57: 193-206 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Baumann, M. H., Strange, C., Heffner, J. E., Light, R., Kirby, T. J., Klein, J., Luketich, J. D., Panacek, E. A., Sahn, S. A. (2001). Management of Spontaneous Pneumothorax : An American College of Chest Physicians Delphi Consensus Statement. Chest 119: 590-602 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Heffner, J. E. (2000). The Overarching Challenge. Chest 118 : 1S-3S [Full text]  
• Hanka, R., Hill-Smith, I., McCullagh, M. G, Meldrum, D. S (1999). Guidelines in general practice. BMJ 318: 1212-1212 [Full text]  
• Williams, J G (1999). Guidelines for clinical guidelines should distinguish between national and local production. BMJ 318: 942a-942 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Guidelines guidance and problems for NICE

Phil Ayres
bmj.com, 18 Aug 1998 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>