The Academy of Medicine (AMS) and Ministry of Health (MOH) have developed the clinical practice guidelines on Assessment and Management of Infertility at Primary Healthcare Level to provide doctors and patients in Singapore with evidence-based treatment for infertility. This article reproduces the introduction and executive summary (with recommendations from the guidelines) from the AMS-MOH cli...

The Society of Surgical Oncology surgical practice guidelines focus on the signs and symptoms of primary cancer, timely evaluation of the symptomatic patient, appropriate preoperative extent of disease evaluation, and the role of the surgeon in diagnosis and treatment. Separate sections on adjuvant therapy, follow-up programs, or management of recurrent cancer have been intentionally omitted. W...

BACKGROUND Online technologies may reduce barriers to evidence-based mental health care, yet they also create numerous ethical challenges. Recently, numerous professional organizations and expert groups have produced best-practice guidelines to assist mental health professionals in delivering online interventions in an ethically and clinically sound manner. However, there has been little critic...

Doctors are often faced with difficult decisions and uncertainty when patients need a certain treatment. They routinely rely on the scientific literature, in addition to their knowledge, experience, and patient preferences. Clinical practice guidelines are created with the intention of facilitating decision-making. They may offer concise instructions for the diagnosis, management (medical or su...

BACKGROUND Clinical practice guidelines have been developed to assist healthcare practitioners in clinical decision making. Publication of clinical practice guidelines does not automatically lead to their uptake and barrier identification has been recognized as an important step in implementation planning. This study aimed at developing a questionnaire to identify perceived barriers for impleme...

BACKGROUND Theories of behavior change indicate that an analysis of barriers to change is helpful when trying to influence professional practice. The aim of this study was to assess the perceived barriers to practice change by eliciting nurses' opinions with regard to barriers to, and facilitators of, implementation of a Fall Prevention clinical practice guideline in five acute care hospitals i...

Family physicians have expressed a broad range of concerns regarding practice guidelines and other clinical policies. These concerns include (but are certainly not limited to) skepticism about the scientific accuracy of recommendations, uneasiness about infringement on autonomy in clinical care, and apprehension regarding potential adverse consequences if wrongly applied by third parties. I-4 B...

Welcome to a new age in publishing systematic reviews. We hope the launch of Systematic Reviews will resonate with a broad spectrum of readers interested in using them in a variety of ways, such as providing comprehensive and up to date evidence for patient management, informing health policy, and developing rigorous practice guidelines. Systematic reviews are increasingly popular. Our journal ...

BACKGROUND Adherence to evidence-based recommendations for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains unsatisfactory. OBJECTIVE Quantifying association between using an electronic AMI order set (AMI-OS) and hospital processes and outcomes. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Twenty-one community hospitals. PATIENTS A total of 5879 AMI patients were hospitalized between September 2...

BACKGROUND The prediction of the public health impact of a preventive strategy provides valuable support for decision-making. International guidelines for hypertension management have introduced the level of absolute cardiovascular risk in the definition of the treatment target population. The public health impact of implementing such a recommendation has not been measured. METHODOLOGY/PRINCI...