Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2008 Oct;24(10):753-7.
doi: 10.1016/s0828-282x(08)70679-2.

AGREEing on Canadian cardiovascular clinical practice guidelines

James A Stone  1 , Leslie Austford, John H Parker, Norm Gledhill, Guy Tremblay, Heather M Arthur; Canadian Vascular Coalition
Affiliations
Review

AGREEing on Canadian cardiovascular clinical practice guidelines

James A Stone et al. Can J Cardiol. 2008 Oct.

Abstract
in English, French

The use of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), particularly the routine implementation of evidence-based cardiovascular health maintenance and disease management recommendations, affords both expert and nonexpert practitioners the opportunity to achieve better, and at least theoretically similar, patient outcomes. However, health care practitioners are often stymied in their efforts to follow even well-researched and well-written CPGs as a consequence of contradictory information. The purposeful integration and harmonization of Canadian cardiovascular CPGs, regardless of their specific risk factor or clinical management focus, is critical to their widespread acceptance and implementation. This level of cooperation and coordination among CPG groups and organizations would help to ensure that their clinical practice roadmaps (ie, best practice recommendations) contain clear, concise and complementary, rather than contradictory, patient care information. Similarly, the application of specific tools intended to improve the quality of CPGs, such as the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) assessment tool, may also lead to improvements in CPG quality and potentially enhance their acceptance and implementation.

Le recours aux guides de pratique clinique (GPC), notamment l’application systématique des recommandations probantes sur le maintien de la santé cardiovasculaire et la prise en charge des maladies, permet à la fois aux praticiens spécialisés et non spécialisés d’obtenir de meilleures issues et, en théorie, des issues similaires pour les patients. Cependant, les praticiens de la santé sont souvent contrecarrés dans leurs efforts pour respecter les GPC, même s’ils sont bien documentés et font l’objet de recherches solides, en raison d’information contradictoire. Il est essentiel de procéder à l’intégration et à l’harmonisation volontaires des GPC canadiens en santé cardiovasculaire, quels que soient leurs facteurs de risque précis ou leur mode de prise en charge clinique, pour assurer l’acceptation et l’adoption généralisées des GPC. Ce niveau de collaboration et de coordination entre groupes et organisations de GPC contribuerait à garantir que leurs carnets de route de pratiques cliniques (c’est-à-dire les recommandations de meilleures pratiques) contiennent de l’information sur les soins aux patients qui soit claire, concise et complémentaire, plutôt que contradictoire. De même, l’application d’outils précis conçus pour améliorer la qualité des GPC, tels que l’outil d’évaluation AGREE pour évaluer les lignes directrices en matière de recherche et d’évaluation, pourrait permettre d’améliorer la qualité des GPC, de même que leur acceptation et leur adoption.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Mosca L, Linfante AH, Benjamin EJ, et al. National study of physician awareness and adherence to cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines. Circulation. 2005;111:499–510. - PubMed
    1. Heidrich J, Behrens T, Raspe F, Keil U. Knowledge and perception of guidelines and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease among general practitioners and internists. Results from a physician survey in Germany. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil. 2005;12:521–9. - PubMed
    1. Eagle KA, Montoye CK, Riba AL, et al. American College of Cardiology’s Guidelines Applied in Practice (GAP) Projects in Michigan; American College of Cardiology Foundation (Bethesda, Maryland) Guidelines Applied in Practice Steering committee Guideline-based standardized care is associated with substantially lower mortality in medicare patients with acute myocardial infarction: The American College of Cardiology’s Guidelines Applied in Practice (GAP) Projects in Michigan. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2005;46:1242–8. - PubMed
    1. Moscucci M, Rogers EK, Montoye C, et al. Association of a continuous quality improvement initiative with practice and outcome variations of contemporary percutaneous coronary interventions. Circulation. 2006;113:814–22. - PubMed
    1. Yan AT, Yan RT, Tan M, et al. Vascular Protection (VP) and Guidelines Oriented Approach to Lipid Lowering (GOALL) Registries Investigators Contemporary management of dyslipidemia in high-risk patients: Targets still not met. Am J Med. 2006;119:676–83. - PubMed

Publication types