What are Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs)?
CPGs, as defined by the Institute of Medicine (3) and the American Medical Association (AMA) (4), are systematically developed statements based on current professional knowledge, which are not standards of care, but are intended to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances. In actual practice, each clinical circumstance is unique, and many factors other than published clinical results contribute to clinical decisions. These factors include patient and physician choices and characteristics including cultural beliefs, personal values, experiences, and education (5). Other factors contributing to clinical decisions are constraints, such as formal policies, laws, community standards, time, and reimbursement (5). Practice guidelines can help guide clinical decision-making in this complex environment. Just how powerful a tool a particular CPG can be to assist practitioner and patient decisions depends on the attributes of that
