Clinical practice guidelines are produced by different health-care organizations and professional bodies at the local, regional or national level. These guidelines address a variety of medical issues and conditions. Although practice guidelines provide practice recommendations based on a systematic review of the research, guidelines produced by different organizations may make different recommendations or they may not be valid. Make sure you are using the most current guideline and that the guideline you use is a systematic review of the evidence developed by a panel of experts,
The NIH is composed of 27 Institutes and Centers and is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.
Steps to search for practice guidelines within NIH's Institutes:
Select the Institute that pertains to your topic, e.g. the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
Often, you can find practice guidelines by searching the websites of the Institutes within the National Institutes of Health network. Try using each website's "Search" feature to look for "clinical practice guidelines", "practice guidelines", or "guidelines".
Evidence-based guidelines on many topics relating to internal medicine.
The RCN collaborates with other organizations to create clinical practice guidelines.
The RNAO provides free nursing best practice guidelines on selected topics and access to other documents in English and French, some guidelines can be downloaded. RNAO is the professional association representing registered nurses in Ontario, Canada.
HSTAT is a free searchable collection of large, full-text clinical practice guidelines, technology assessments, quick-reference guides for clinicians, consumer health brochures, evidence reports, and health information.
Developed and produced by the Office of Quality and Performance in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
The National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC) is a comprehensive database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents, sponsored by AHRQ. Clinical practice guidelines are systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances. NGC was originally created by AHRQ in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans (now America's Health Insurance Plans [AHIP])
The National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ (NQMC), sponsored by AHRQ, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a database and Web site for information on specific evidence-based health care quality measures and measure sets. Its purpose is to promote widespread access to quality measures