Clinical Guidelines

Advances in medical, biomedical and health services research have reduced the level of uncertainty in clinical practice. Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) complement this progress by establishing standards of care backed by strong scientific evidence. CPGs are statements that include recommendations intended to optimize patient care. These statements are informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and costs of alternative care options. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust examines the current state of clinical practice guidelines and how they can be improved to enhance healthcare quality and patient outcomes. Clinical practice guidelines now are ubiquitous in our healthcare system. The Guidelines International Network (GIN) database currently lists more than 3,700 guidelines from 39 countries. Developing guidelines presents a number of challenges including lack of transparent methodological practices, difficulty reconciling conflicting guidelines, and conflicts of interest. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust explores questions surrounding the quality of CPG development processes and the establishment of standards. It proposes eight standards for developing trustworthy clinical practice guidelines emphasizing transparency; management of conflict of interest ; systematic review-guideline development intersection; establishing evidence foundations for and rating strength of guideline recommendations; articulation of recommendations; external review; and updating. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust shows how clinical practice guidelines can enhance clinician and patient decision-making by translating complex scientific research findings into recommendations for clinical practice that are relevant to the individual patient encounter, instead of implementing a one size fits all approach to patient care. This book contains information directly related to the work of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), as well as various Congressional staff and policymakers. It is a vital resource for medical specialty societies, disease advocacy groups, health professionals, private and international organizations that develop or use clinical practice guidelines, consumers, clinicians, and payers.

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.

The Alberta clinical practice guidelines program is supporting appropriate, effective and quality medical care in Alberta through promotion, development and implementation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

"Clinical Guidelines in Family Practice, 5th edition, is the fully revised and updated version of a book that has been serving primary care clinicians for more than twenty years. Using a traditional and easy-to-follow format, the book examines all of the common conditions encountered in primary care settings, while also addressing health promotion and disease prevention. For each topic, the essentials of pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and corresponding treatment plans including prognosis and recommended follow-up schedules are sequentially organized. Also included are recommended web-based resources and references to more in-depth discussion of the various topics. As in previous editions, Clinical Guidelines in Family Practice aims for thoroughness in coverage and for concision in approach, a formula that helps clinicians to efficiently recognize and treat the myriad medical conditions that they face as primary-care providers."--Online book description.

Learn from the most authoritative specialists in the care of children. Includes more than 40 new or revised AAP policy statements, all AAP clinical practice guidelines and full text of 2009 AAP policy statements. Also features more than 30 clinical practice guidelines, 380 policy statements, clinical reports, and technical reports and the 2010 Immunization Schedule.