Module 1: Professional Accountability and Prescribing

Lesson 5

Quality of clinical practice guidelines

When rigorously developed, guidelines can effectively translate the complexity of scientific research findings and other evidence into practical and actionable recommendations.

However, not every CPG, is created using rigorous and carefully defined systematic approaches.  Some CPGs have not included a sufficiently comprehensive literature search to retrieve all forms of research on a clinical issue, and some have not been appropriately vetted by experts and patient groups.  Not all CPGs clearly rate the quality and value of the specific evidence they are using.