Society Guidelines

Periodically, medical and other health care related societies and governing bodies come up with guidelines. What do these guidelines mean for patients and doctors?

First, let's explore the process of creation of the guidelines. The guidelines are created by the members of the societies and governing bodies. Usually, the members of the societies are medical and other healthcare professionals. These individuals come from a variety of settings. Some of them work for academic institutions. Others work for the government agencies. These individuals are considered experts in their respective fields. Specific problems and controversies are identified by these individuals. The society and governing body members then explore available research and literature. Committees are formed. After a few meetings, the guidelines are created.

The end product is a guideline that discusses what should and should not be done in a particular situation. In many cases, the strength of the literature, on which the guideline is based is indicated on a numeric scale.

How does this affect an individual patient for doctor? From the patient's perspective, the best course of action would be an intervention or lack of intervention that would result in best outcome. Society's recommendation may or may not apply to any particular situation. Guidelines are based on the studies that ideally include many individuals. The power of the study depends on the number of individuals in the study. Higher power of the study implies that the study can be applied to larger populations. Problem arises if a particular individual is not an average or representative person of the population that was studied. People from various parts of the world have different genes. Their development was affected by their surroundings. As such, it is impossible to predict whether a particular guideline based on study population can be applied to an individual case.

From the doctor's perspective, the guidelines help manage overall population in the doctor's practice. However, once again, applicability of any recommendation or guideline needs to be validated in each individual case. There will be cases when society guidelines and recommendations on the best course of action do not apply to a particular situation. Reasonable conclusion is that guidelines and recommendations produced by societies and governing bodies should only be treated as guidelines and recommendations, and not as absolute rules.

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