Clinical practice guidelines: time to move the debate from the how to the who

Van Der Weyden, Martin B

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04428.x

The ascendancy of evidence-based medicine over the last decade has fostered an unprecedented growth in practice guidelines.1-3 Departments of health and associated agencies, specialty societies and other medical organisations have all embraced the development of guidelines in the belief that adherence to their recommendations translates into benefits for patients (improved outcomes), practitioners (improved quality of care), and providers (improved cost-effectiveness).4

The Medical Journal of Australia, Strawberry Hills, NSW.

Correspondence:

1. Shaneyfelt TM, Mayo-Smith MF, Rothwangl J. Are guidelines following guidelines? The methodological quality of clinical practice guidelines in the peer-reviewed literature. JAMA 1999; 81: 1900-1905.
2. Grilli R, Magrini N, Penna A, et al. Practice guidelines developed by special societies: the need for critical appraisal. Lancet 2000; 335: 103-106.
3. Choudhdry NK, Stelfox HT, Detsky AS. Relationships between authors of clinical practice guidelines and the pharmaceutical industry. Lancet 2002; 287: 612-617.
4. Woolf SH, Groll R, Hutchison A, et al. Potential benefits, limitations and harms of clinical guidelines. BMJ 1999; 318: 527-530.
5. Miller J,Petrie J. Development of practice guidelines [editorial]. Lancet 2000; 355: 82-83.
6. National Health and Medical Research Council. Guidelines for the development and implementation of clinical practice guidelines. Canberra: AGPS, 1995.
7. Shekelle PG, Woolf SH, Eccles M, Grimshaw J. Developing guidelines. BMJ 1999; 318: 593-596.
8. Hirst GHL, Ward JE. Clinical practice guidelines: reality bites. Med J Aust 2000; 172: 287-291.
9. Edmonds JP, Day RO, Bertoch JV. The road to consensus: considerations for the safe use and prescribing of COX-2-specific inhibitors. Med J Aust 2002; 176: 332-334. <eMJA full text>
10. The Australian COX-2-Specific Inhibitor (CSI) Prescribing Group. Considerations for the safe prescribing and use of COX-2-specific inhibitors. Med J Aust 2002; 176: 328-331. <eMJA full text>
11. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The COPE Report 2001. Guidelines on good publication practice. Available at <http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/reports/2001/2001pdfcomplete.pdf> (accessed 12 March 2002).
12. Stelfox HT, Chua G, O'Rourke, Detsky AS. Conflict of interest in the debate over calcium channel antagonists. N Engl J Med 1998; 338: 101-106.

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.