This Article Full Text Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lenfant, C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lenfant, C.

(Circulation. 1995;91:617-618.)
© 1995 American Heart Association, Inc.

Articles

NHLBI Clinical Guidelines

Another Look

Claude Lenfant, MD

From the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md.

	Introduction

 
For more than two decades, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has been a leader in conducting national education programs to promote timely transfer of research findings to health professionals, patients, and the general public. An important and visible aspect of this effort has been the development and issuance of clinical guidelines with respect to high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and asthma. Historically, the primary purpose of such guidelines was to serve as a foundation for the many Institute-coordinated educational activities that addressed these topics. Today, clinical practice guidelines have taken on multiple dimensions as a result of increased attention from methodologists, professional associations, third-party payers, and policy makers. It appears likely that future health care strategies, managed or otherwise, will in some fashion have provisions for clinical practice guidelines.

To place the NHLBI in the context of these efforts, it is important to understand what our guidelines are and—perhaps more important—what they are not. In developing its guidelines, the NHLBI analyzes research results with the goal of providing information that may enable health care providers to enhance their ability to detect, treat, and prevent disease. Thus, NHLBI guidelines represent opportunities to improve individual and public health, not mandates to the medical community or prescriptions for a given patient or population group. This analysis of research outcomes is an integral part of the NHLBI mission that may prove useful in development of general practice guidelines by other agencies specifically charged with that task.

The NHLBI approach to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. D. Cabana, B. E. Ebel, L. Cooper-Patrick, N. R. Powe, H. R. Rubin, and C. S. Rand Barriers Pediatricians Face When Using Asthma Practice Guidelines Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, July 1, 2000; 154(7): 685 - 693. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Lenfant JNC Guidelines: Is the Message Getting Through? JAMA, December 3, 1997; 278(21): 1778 - 1779. [Abstract] [PDF]