Clinical guidelines: Evidence-Based Practice Current Resources for Evidence-Based Practice Carol Sakala, PhD, MSPH, July/August 2005

re clinical guidelines valid tools for evidence-based pracice? The quality of guidelines varies widely, and they hould be assessed on a case-by-case basis. This commenary points to some leading initiatives and resources for xcellence in and access to guidelines. Major assessments of guidelines respectively published n peer-reviewed journals and issued by specialty societies aised serious concerns about their quality. Evaluations f obstetrician/gynecologist specialty society guidelines onfirmed concerns about the rigor of development, quality f content, and applicability of clinical practice guidelines ublished for this specialy. Various initiatives to improve he situation have been established, and a more recent ssessment found that evidence-based principles dominate eading guidelines programs. An international collaborative f guideline developers and researchers created the AGREE Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation) checklist o help policy makers, providers, and educators assess the rocess and recommendations of individual guidelines (see ttp://www.agreecollaboration.org). The US government has established a searchable Naional Guidelines Clearinghouse (http://www.guideline. ov), and the UK National Health Service offers a Guideines Finder (libraries.nelh.nhs.uk/guidelinesFinder/default. sp?page INTER&&nodecatID 5715). The Geneva Founation for Medical Education and Research maintains an nventory of guidelines pertaining to women’s health (http:// ww.gfmer.ch/Guidelines/Obstetrics_gynecology_ uidelines.php). Membership in the Guidelines International etwork (http://www.gfmer.ch/Guidelines/Obstetrics_ ynecology_guidelines.php) provides access to an Internaional Guideline Library.