History, Purpose, and Use of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Stroke

Abstract

The major objectives of medical guidelines are typically intended for clinicians to help them take better care of patients. However, there are many other guideline users in the healthcare system. Although clinical practice guidelines are suggestions rather than rules, insurance company or administrators often use guidelines to set standards on quality assessment and payment for care. There is a widespread effort to deal with rising costs and the need for the quality improvement by implementing guidelines. Lawyers may use well-accepted guidelines in the litigation of medical practice. In this chapter brief history of modern clinical practice guideline and requirement of trustworthy guideline will be illustrated, which would be useful for clinicians to understand the merits and limitations of clinical practice guideline.