MSK Library Guides: Evidence-Based Practice: Practice Guidelines

What are Practice Guidelines?

Also known as clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), 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 varying recommendations based on the process used to collect and analyze the evidence.

Below is a list of guideline resources, some generic and some with a specialized focus. These resources are good starting points in identifying relevant guidelines to contribute to evidence-based decision making and clinical excellence.

National Guideline Clearinghouse - A GOOD PLACE TO START

UPDATE!!

Due to loss of funding, the National Guildeline Clearinghouse (NGC) has been dismantled. The ECRI Institute created a new resource ECRI Guidelines Trust in response to the discontinuation of the NCG. Registration is currently free and is required for access.

MSK Resources for Finding Guidelines

National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines
An alliance of 27 of the world's leading cancer centers, working together to develop treatment guidelines for most cancers, and dedicated to research that improves the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of cancer care. NCCN offers a number of programs to give clinicians access to tools and knowledge that can help guide decision-making in the management of cancer. Note: personal login registration required to access full text guidelines.
BMJ Best Practice
Supports evidence-based medicine by publishing peer-reviewed systematic reviews which identify, appraise, grade and summarize the latest and authoritative biomedical evidence on a wide range of globally important clinical conditions. It is a clinical decision support resource of evidence-based answers to critical, real-world clinical questions. Users can create free personal accounts to access BMJ's Best Practice.
Trip
A clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care. As well as research evidence we also allow clinicians to search across other content types including images, videos, patient information leaflets, educational courses and news. To view guidelines only, run a search in the main search box then use the 'refine" options in the right-hand column to limit to guideline results. Note: register for an account to take advantage of some advanced features.
PubMed (MEDLINE)
Developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), PubMed provides web access to bibliographic information from the MEDLINE corpus of journals, as well as, publisher-supplied citations from non-MEDLINE publications. Steps to search for practice guidelines in PubMed: Type the topic (such as a condition, symptom, or clinical procedure) in the search box, click on the "Limits" tab and check the box next to "Practice Guideline" under the section labeled "Type of Article."
CINAHL
Provides indexing for over 3,000 nursing, allied health, biomedical, and consumer health journals. Additional items indexed include nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, audiovisuals, magazines, and book chapters. Evidence Based Care Sheets and Quick Lessons are also included. Steps to search for practice guidelines in CINAHL: Type the topic (such as a condition, symptom, or clinical procedure) in the search box on the Advanced Search page (if you already know the name of the guideline, do a title search), then select "Practice Guidelines" from the "Publication Type" menu in the Advanced Search or Limits sections.

Other Guideline Resources (Organizations, Associations, etc.)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
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:
1) Select the Institute that pertains to your topic, e.g. the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
2) 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".
ACP Clinical Practice Guidelines & Recommendations
Evidence-based guidelines on many topics relating to internal medicine from the American College of Physicians.
RCN Clinical Topics
Royal College of Nursing collaborates with other organizations in the United Kingdom and Ireland to create clinical practice guidelines.
AHRQ Clinical Guidelines & Recommendations
Includes a link to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
CAM-Cancer Evidence Based Summaries
Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Cancer (CAM-Cancer) provides evidence-based summaries on a range of integrative, complementary, and alternative medicine interventions.