Guidelines

Recommendations or suggestions for organizing or delivering services of various types. Guidelines are distinguished from regulations by their voluntary nature, but adherence is generally facilitated by professional expectations rather than formal requirements. Guidelines for public health activities, such as those for laboratory standards, are distinguished from clinical guidelines, which describe interventions that are indicated (or not indicated) in the diagnosis and management of specific diseases or conditions. Increasingly, the development of clinical guidelines is informed by scientific evidence of the benefit of the recommended procedures, thus giving rise to the field known as “evidence-based medicine”. The development of administrative guidelines is more often based on evidence from practice of systematically poor quality when certain structural elements of health systems are not appropriately or adequately maintained. ([http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.55.7.452](http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.55.7.452))