Los pacientes en las guías de práctica clínica

Abstract

In the last decades the health policies of developed countries and those of professionals are directing their activities towards the citizen as the focal point of the health system. The citizens also demand an active role in health related decision-making processes. In this context, the development and use of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are instruments of encounter between policies, citizens and professionals but they create many methodological and operational difficulties. The objective of this work is to provide general guidelines to help the different players to incorporate patients in the development of CPGs and to adapt the patient CPG version (CPG-P). A structured review has been carried out on methodological documents on CPGs and documents oriented towards the production of CPG-P (or related documents). After analysing the information, we propose three areas of development (contents, design and evaluation) and two areas for the participation of patients in CPGs: patients as a members of the guideline development group and/or as members of the CPG-P development group. The process of participation of citizens is not a simple one, it requires planning and sensitivity to those involved, but there is no doubt that it adds value to the introduction of CPGs.