Practice Guidelines
What are Practice Guidelines? They are evidence-based recommendations. Thus, practice guidelines bring together the scientific evidence available at a certain point in time in a manner that outlines the options available. Depending on the purpose, a specific guideline can vary from a few simple rules to a more elaborate document with many choices and great detail on the rationale supporting a specific approach.
Whatever the purpose, a guideline is just that – a recommendation that a treating physician may wish to consider. Under no circumstance should a guideline overrule clinical judgment. Because even the most detailed guideline cannot cover every situation that a clinician will confront, the treating physician must always provide the individual patient with the best advice for their particular condition and state.
Why should the American College of Rheumatology have Practice Guidelines? The ACR is seen as the authority in the field of arthritis and musculoskeletal disease. No other group can bring to a topic the expertise and experience available to the ACR. Because of this, the ACR is committed to being a leader in providing independent evidence based recommendations for managing arthritis and musculoskeletal disease, particularly in areas of high impact or controversy.
Practice Guidelines
Guidelines in Progress/New Guidelines Projects
Newly Released RFP – Guidelines for the Treatment of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA): Full proposals are due July 7, 2008
Guidelines for the Management of Osteoarthritis of the Hip, Knee, and Hand – In progress; PI for this project is Marc Hochberg, MD, MPH
New ACR RA Guidelines Released
The 2008 Recommendations for the Use of Nonbiologic and Biologic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in Rheumatoid Arthritis have been released. The PIs for the project were Kenneth G. Saag, MD, MSc and Daniel E. Furst, MD.
To review the article, log on to AC&R at http://www.rheumatology.org/publications/acr/index.asp?aud=mem and search for Saag KG, Teng GG, Patkar NM, Anuntiyo J, Finney C, Curtis JR, et al. American College of Rheumatology 2008 Recommendations for the Use of Nonbiologic and Biologic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 2008:59(6): 762---784.
