Clinical guidelines

Find out more about clinical practice guidelines in this section of the site:

What are clinical practice guidelines?

Clinical practice guidelines are 'systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate healthcare for specific clinical circumstances' (Field MJ, Lohr KN 1992).

Clinical practice guidelines form part of the evidence base from which practitioners work. They are written on a clearly defined topic and, after a systematic search, use the best available evidence. They should define the search strategy, references used, the reasoning for how the recommendation was written, and provide a grading of the strength of the recommendation and the quality of the evidence.

The value of guidelines is their inclusion of all relevant perspectives when interpreting the evidence and forming a recommendation; guideline developers should include all professional groups, patients, carers, and commissioners. Guideline developers interpret the best available evidence and construct recommendations for clinical practice based on this.

Guidelines should be statements to inform clinicians and patients, but not rigid rules. Clinicians still have to decide if the guideline is appropriate for a specific patient (recognising, for example, multi-pathological states) and how to use the guideline in individual cases. Patients still have to agree with the treatment offered.

Guidelines can also be used to make a case for the provision of a treatment. The process of development of the guideline can help to spot gaps in research literature and provide pointers to where research needs to be undertaken.

Guidelines facilitate evidence-based practice, and commissioning. They attempt to draw together all relevant research on a topic, consider conflicting research, and give recommendations for clinical practice to help the clinician and the patient make decisions about treatment options.

Reference: Field MJ, Lohr KN eds (1992). Guidelines for Clinical Practice: From Development to Use, Washington, DC: National Academy Press
Back to top

Finding clinical guidelines

The following databases all have free web access:
  • Eguidelines    This is the online edition of 'Guidelines' which summarises clinical guidelines for primary and shared care and guidelines in practice for those involved in developing and implementing guidelines
    www.eguidelines.co.uk
  • Guidelines Finder - National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH)    The Guidelines Finder database currently holds details of over 700 UK national guidelines with links to Internet downloadable versions of the guidelines and where available on the NeLH full text guidelines collection
    http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/guidelinesfinder/
  • Infobase - Clinical Practice Guidelines from the Canadian Medical Association
    http://mdm.ca/cpgsnew/cpgs/index.asp
  • National Guideline Clearing House   The National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a public resource for evidence based clinical practice guidelines in the United States.
    http://www.guideline.gov
  • National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines (Australia)
    http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/
  • National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidelines
    http://www.nice.org.uk
  • New Zealand Guidelines Group - Guidelines Database
    http://www.nzgg.org.nz/
  • Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network
    http://www.sign.ac.uk/guidelines
Back to top