What are Practice Guidelines?
"A set of recommendations defining conditions for using or not using available interventions in clinical or public health practice. Practice guidelines may be evidence-based and referred to as evidence-based guidelines or evidence-based recommendations." (Riegelman, R.K. (2005). Studying a study & testing a test: How to read the medical evidence. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.)
In other words, practice guidelines are sets of evidence-based, systematically developed recommendations for health care.
Practice Guideline Resources
The following resources provide access to practice guidelines, which are based on the latest evidence. Many practice guidelines include ratings of the level of evidence for each recommendation for prevention or treatment. Level of evidence is based on the type of study that supports the recommendation, from case reports and editorials on the low end up to systematic reviews on the high end. For more information on levels of evidence, please refer to the Types of Studies guide.
- ClinicalKeyClinical information tool searches extensive full-text holdings for clinical answers in journal articles, books, and videos. Searchable by keyword as well as disease, finding, procedure or drug. Published by Elsevier. 2007 - Present.
- Current Practice Guidelines in Primary Care 2021-2022Textbook within AccessMedicine. Provides access to guidelines based on disease screening, prevention and management of over 200 conditions.
- Guidelines International Network (GIN)International database of guidelines published or endorsed by GIN members. Includes published guidelines and registry for guidelines in development.
Appraising Practice Guidelines
- How to Interpret and Use a Clinical Practice Guideline or Recommendation: Users’ Guides to the Medical LiteratureBrignardello-Petersen R, Carrasco-Labra A, Guyatt GH. How to Interpret and Use a Clinical Practice Guideline or Recommendation: Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature. JAMA. 2021;326(15):1516–1523. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.15319
Practice Guidelines in PubMed
Searches in PubMed can be limited to display only Practice Guidelines. Access PubMed@Himmelfarb. After performing a search in PubMed, under MY NCBI FILTERS, select "Practice Guidelines". You should now see that your results list is much shorter and restricted to Practice Guidelines only.
Practice Guidelines in MEDLINE
Searches in Ovid MEDLINE can also be limited to display only Practice Guidelines. On the main search screen under Limits, scroll to "Practice Guidelines" in the Publication Types. Select this from the list and then proceed with your search.
