Doctors trump guidelines

WHEN you visit your doctor, he may mention clinical practice guidelines. With easy access to the Internet, clinical practice guidelines will become more and more apparent in the medical landscape, both from the doctor's and patient's perspectives. Clinical practice guidelines for different medical specialities have been proliferating so rapidly that it is an impossible task for primary physicians to keep up with.

Given the trend towards sub-specialisation in many developed countries, it is extremely difficult for most specialists to keep up with guidelines within their speciality let alone other specialities. Guidelines are precisely what they are meant to be, that is, guidelines. They are not meant to be laws and regulations to govern the practice of medicine, but rather, beacons to guide physicians as they meander through this rapidly changing medical landscape and sometimes confusing maze of data that endlessly emanates from medical trials.

Lest you search the Internet and start reading treatment guidelines for a condition that you may have, you will need to be aware of the limitations of the guidelines even if you can navigate through the subtleties of the medical jargon and technical terms.