Research Guides: Pharmacy: Practice Guidelines

Clinical Practice Guidelines

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines clinical practice guidelines as "systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances."

There are several different places you can locate clinical practice guidelines, including drug information databases and websites.

UpToDate Lexidrug (Lexicomp)
To locate guidelines in Lexicomp, search for the name of a medication (for example: amlodipine) and open the monograph. In the left hand menu, navigate to Clinical Practice Guidelines.
DynaMed Plus
To locate guidelines in DynaMed Plus, search for the name of a condition (for example: hypertension) and open the condition page. In the left hand menu, navigate to Guidelines & Resources.
PubMed
To locate guidelines in PubMed, search for the name of a condition (recommended), symptom, or medication. Use the Article Type filter on the left hand side and select Guideline. You may need to click "See all article type filters" for the Guideline option to appear.
You can refine your search to narrow results (for example: hypertension AND pregnancy).

ECRI Guidelines Trust
ECRI Guidelines Trust is a repository of clinical practice guidelines. The site uses strict inclusion criteria to ensure only quality guidelines are included. Search for a condition or symptom to locate relevant guidelines.
NOTE: This repository includes only guidelines published within the past 5 years.
PharmGuides.com
PharmGuides is a living database of curated evidence-based clinical guidelines. It aims to provide a free, centralized, accessible resource to pharmacists and pharmacy students. Search for a condition name to locate associated guidelines.
American Pharmacists Association
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) maintains a comprehensive list of clinical guidelines covering a wide variety of medical conditions. Resources are reviewed annually to ensure quality and accuracy.
NOTE: This resource now requires an APhA membership.

Using Trustworthy Guidelines

Many different health organizations publish clinical practice guidelines. When evaluating the quality of available guidelines, consider the following:

To be trustworthy, guidelines should:

be based on a systematic review of existing evidence
be developed by a knowledgeable, multidisciplinary panel of experts and representatives from key affected groups
consider important patient subgroups and patient preferences, as appropriate
be based on an explicit and transparent process that minimizes distortions, biases, and conflicts of interest
provide a clear explanation of the logical relationships between alternative care options and health outcomes
provide ratings of both the quality of evidence and the strength of the recommendations
be reconsidered and revised as appropriate when important new evidence warrants modifications of recommendations

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines, Graham, R., Mancher, M., Miller Wolman, D., Greenfield, S., & Steinberg, E. (Eds.). (2011). Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust. National Academies Press (US).