[Critical remarks regarding guidelines based on scientific research].
National and international guidelines for diagnosis and treatment are increasingly applied as standards for medical interventions. Evidence-based consensus guidelines are not consistently based on the outcome of scientific studies. Recent research yielding inherent low-grade evidence is liable to be overruled by personal impressions, sentiments and common sense. Guidelines are based on the average patient, with a certain range. With increasing specialisation, one increasingly sees that doctors justifiably digress from a guideline when a patient differs substantially from the average.
Nieweg
O E
OE
Het Nederlands Kanker Instituut/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis, afd. Heelkunde, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam. o.nieweg@nki.nl
D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards*