Clinical Practice Guidelines (or Guidelines or Practice Guidelines) are a strategy for changing clinician behavior to optimize patient care. They are systematically developed statements or recommendations to assist clinician and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances. They are, ideally, informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and harms of alternative care options. (source)
Developed by hundreds of groups in dozens of countries, clinical practice guidelines can sometimes be challenging to locate. It is also important to note that since scientific knowledge is in constant development, regular review of clinical guidelines is required to assure their trustworthiness (source). This page aims to assist you with that process.
PubMed has a search filter that you can limit by publication type so that only guidelines show up. Choose Advanced Search, select “Publication Type” in the drop-down menu, and then type in “Guideline” or “Clinical Guideline” or “Practice Guideline” to filter down your results.
Source: Laine C, Taichman DB, Mulrow C. Trustworthy Clinical Guidelines. Ann Intern Med. 2011;154:774–775. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-154-11-201106070-00011
