[The importance of professional guidelines for Appropriate Care]

Abstract

'Appropriate Care' forms the cornerstone of the Integral Care Agreement, composed and signed by several Dutch health care organizations and the government. Professional guidelines play an important role to fulfill the four principles of 'Appropriate Care'. Guidelines contribute to value based care by describing effective and efficient treatments. They contribute to personalized care, because they are the basis of (tools for) shared decision making. They contribute to the right care at the right place by cooperation or coordination across domains. And they contribute to health instead of sickness by recommendations about prevention and self care. Obviously this is accompanied by multiple challenges that will be addressed together with possible solutions, hopefully resulting in the fact that guidelines remain essential for 'Appropriate Care'.