title: Clinical practice guidelines to inform evidence-based clinical practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  With the volume of medical research currently published, any one practitioner cannot independently review the literature to determine best evidence-based medical care. Additionally, non-specialists usually do not have the experience to know best practice for all of the frequent clinical circumstances for which there is no good evidence. Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) help clinicians to address these problems because they are systematically created documents that summarize knowledge and provide guidance to assist in delivering high-quality medicine. They aim to improve health care by identifying evidence that supports the best clinical care and making clear which practices appear to be ineffective.
  
  
  METHODS
  Non-structured literature review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CPGs combine evidence-based medicine (on topics for which evidence exists) with expert opinion (on topics for which there is no evidence). The optimal CPG applies structured and transparent judgments, from an unbiased and diverse panel which includes both clinical experts and non-physicians, to a systematic evidence review. It includes decisions in areas in which clinical data are both available and unavailable. The resulting guideline statements should be clearly linked to the quality of the available evidence and the target patient(s) should be clearly defined, so that the reader can assess strength and applicability of the statements to an individual patient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The application of high-quality CPGs improves patient care, but all too often CPGs are not used to the greatest advantage because of inadequate dissemination and incorporation into practice. This article provides an overview of CPGs, focusing on their justification, creation, improvement, and use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University of Michigan Health System, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, TC 3875, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5330, USA. wolfs@umich.edu
authors.forename: J Stuart
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Heddy
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hubbard
authors.forename: Martha M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Faraday
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Forrest
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000639:trends*; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D014572:Urology / Q000639:trends*