title: [Are the guidelines the standards we have to follow].
abstract: National or international medical societies yearly produce many recommendations i.e., guidelines about patient care, diagnostic or therapeutic procedures or preventive measures. These publications are established according to a level of evidence, based on randomised controlled trials or case studies. The strength of evidence reflects the presence of a good agreement or disagreement between the published trials. The clinician when confronted to these recommendations find them too rigid, poorly adapted to individual patients and depriving him from autonomy. However the use of well established guidelines plays a proven role in improvement of the quality and effectiveness of patient care. Primary care physicians should recognise the good guidelines and follow them to improve their daily practice.
authors.affiliation: Service de médecine interne, Département de médecine interne, Centre hospitalier du centre du Valais (CHCVs), Hôpital de Sion, Avenue Grand Champsec 80, 1951 Sion. pierre-auguste.petignat@rsv-gnw.ch
authors.forename: Pierre-Auguste
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Petignat
mesh_terms: D004992:Ethics, Medical; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic