Introduction to BMJ Rapid Recommendations

Find a committee. Add evidence, opinion, politics, and money in varying measures, and a murky set of recommendations can emerge. To those on the outside, guideline production may seem like a black box, and, unless it is carefully and transparently managed, loss of trust, patient suffering, waste, and over and under treatment can occur. Clinicians and patients who implement recommendations may feel disenfranchised by the pronouncements of researchers, publishers, and guideline writers. In an era when clinicians and patients aim to discuss and select management options that seem right for them, it is clear that we can do better.1 An initiative from the MAGIC non-profit research and innovation programme—representing patients, front-line clinicians, researchers, and guideline experts (www.magicproject.org)—has resulted in a collaboration with The BMJ. We aim to promptly translate emerging research to user friendly and trustworthy recommendations, evidence summaries, and decision aids.

During the hiatus between new evidence and guideline publication, many patients receive outdated care; it can take years for evidence to filter …