AN EFFECTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN FOR THE CLINICAL GUIDELINES SYSTEMS

摘要

Clinical practice guidelines define recommended strategies for managing health care in specific clinical circumstances. The use of guidelines represents a key aspect for a nation wide healthcare system, as explained in the Italian National Plan of Guideline. However, in many situations the knowledge is not enough: knowing "how to do" is needed. In doing so you need a coordinated organization of actions, which are repeated one after another and executed by cooperating individuals holding different professional profiles. Medical Information and Communication Technology provides a number of tools for helping the construction phase and the delivery phase of clinical guidelines. We describe a comprehensive infrastructure able to be effective in the many phases of the guideline lifecycle.