Changing Medical Practice Through Technology Assessment

Considers medical technology consensus development programs in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, England and the United States.

Guidelines for the clinical practice of medicine have been proposed as the solution to the whole range of current health care problems. This new book presents the first balanced and highly practical view of guidelinesâ€"their strengths, their limitations, and how they can be used most effectively to benefit health care. The volume offers: Recommendations and a proposed framework for strengthening development and use of guidelines. Numerous examples of guidelines. A ready-to-use instrument for assessing the soundness of guidelines. Six case studies exploring issues involved when practitioners use guidelines on a daily basis. With a real-world outlook, the volume reviews efforts by agencies and organizations to disseminate guidelines and examines how well guidelines are functioningâ€"exploring issues such as patient information, liability, costs, computerization, and the adaptation of national guidelines to local needs.

Advocates argue that they will make medical practice more rational, more uniform, and more efficient and that they will transform the "art" of medical work into a "science." Critics argue that formal tools cannot and should not supplant humans in most real-life tasks.