Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are statements that include recommendations intended to optimize patient care that are informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and harms of alternative care options (IOM 2011). Health care guidelines and their appropriate implementation are of interest to national organizations, professional societies, health care providers, policy-makers, patients and the public (CMAJ 2014).
Properly developed, they represent a higher order integration of medical evidence, clinical experience/judgment and stakeholder values/preferences.