title: A new independent authority is needed to issue National Health Care guidelines.
abstract: Health experts emphasize that getting doctors to follow clinical guidelines can save both lives and money. Less attention has been paid to how the guidelines are developed and the variability in the recommendations they include. We examined the quality and content of screening guidelines as a proxy for guidelines in general and found that the source of the guidelines affects their quality. Guidelines with inconsistent recommendations are unlikely to serve patients or physicians well. The creation of an independent organization that would work with multiple stakeholders to develop guidelines holds the potential to improve their quality.
authors.affiliation: Mount Sinai, School of Medicine, New York City, NY, USA. salomeh.keyhani@mountsinai.org
authors.forename: Salomeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keyhani
authors.forename: Azalea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Micah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Korenstein
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017046:Cost Savings; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States