What are Clinical Guidelines?
Clinical guidelines are systematically developed statements that provide evidence-based recommendations for patient care in specific clinical situations. They help practitioners make consistent and appropriate decisions about medication management, diagnosis, and treatment for various diseases and conditions. Good guidelines are developed by experts and summarize large bodies of evidence to provide actionable advice.
Key Takeaway; Clinical guidelines:
- are evidence-based
- will cite systematic reviews
- have actionable recommendations
- contain decision-making tools
- are developed by experts
- considers the harms and benefits of treatments
- discloses bias, conflicts of interests, and grades the evidence
Why are clinical guidelines important?
- promotes consistency
- improves quality of care
- helps with decision-making
What are some other names for clinical practice guidelines?
- "recommendation standards"
- "clinical guidelines"
- "CPG"
Where to Find Clinical Guidelines
How to find:
- Can choose by medical specialty or by organization/society that has published the guideline
- Search a keyword or two using the search bar
Some entries are bulleted or modular, others have links to an external site
Con-pop up ads
- PICO search
- opt to search by entering specific populations, intervention, comparisons, and outcomes
Filter by
- Country
- Content type
- Systematic reviews
- Guidelines
- Evidence based synopsis
Lists links to external websites
Cons- doesn't produce all guidelines available, guidelines may be limited or old
Search a condition or a different keyword or two
Filter by
- Year
- Organization (that published guideline)
- Demographic
- Clinical Area
- Intervention
- Show Guidelines
- Systematic review conducted
- Quality of evidence rated
- Strength of recommendations rated
How to find:
- search specific conditions and interventions
- can modify search to display specific demographics
- once you select your content from the search results, a modular outline will come up
- look for "Society Guideline Links" in outlines: these are links to external websites containing the guidelines
The United States Preventive Services Task Force
The USPSTF’s scope is to “make recommendations on clinical preventive services to primary care clinicians,” including screening tests, behavioral counseling, and preventive medications. The USPSTF recommendations only address services offered in primary care settings.
Search by:
- keyword
- condition
- population
- intervention
Filter results by:
- age
- weight
- height
- sex
- pregnant
- tobacco user
- sexually active
- Provides charts and tables related to various treatments/conditions
- Search by entering one or two keywords in the main search bar or browsing the website.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is the agency in charge of improving the quality and safety. Their website "Guidelines and Measures" will search within all AHRQ sites and provide some access to guidelines.
Con: cannot filter by year or anything else
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: Clinical Practice Guidelines
Issued by third-party organizations, and not NCCIH, these guidelines define the role of specific diagnostic and treatment modalities in the diagnosis and management of patients. The statements contain recommendations that are based on evidence from a rigorous systematic review and synthesis of the published medical literature.
This is a list of resources grouped by subject matter. Click the links to access external websites containing guidelines.
Guidelines are published by a number of entities, the most trustworthy of which are educational institutions, medical institutions, and health organizations. You can search for clinical practice guidelines using a simple google search.
To search for .edu, .org, or .gov specific websites
- enter the search terms you want to look for.
- after your search terms,
- type site:.edu to yield only websites that end in .edu
- type site:.org to yield only websites that end in .org
- type site:.gov to yield only websites that end in .gov
Example: clinical guidelines for geriatric patients with diabetes site:.org
Examples of Good Guidelines
- Statin Use for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults: Preventive
Medication by U.S. Preventive Services Task Force - VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (this one is 165 pages long, but has a helpful table of contents.) by the Department of Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense
- Antibiotics after incision and drainage for uncomplicated skin abscesses: a clinical practice guideline by the British Medical Journal
Evaluating Clinical Guidelines
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Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust
by
ISBN: 9780309164238Publication Date: 2011-06-16Clinical 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.
Frequently Used Terminology
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Clinical Practice Guidelines TerminologyA list of vocabulary with definitions that you will likely see when viewing or evaluating clinical practice guidelines.
Therapeutic Research Center: Clinical Resource #36116
Class of Recommendation and Level of Evidence
ACC/AHA Recommendation System: Applying Class of Recommendation and Level of Evidence to Clinical Strategies, Interventions, Treatments, or Diagnostic Testing in Patient Care. Use this table to determine what different levels of Class of Recommendations and Level of Evidence mean. Cick the image to enlarge.
