ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2002
Are guidelines ethical? Some considerations for general practice.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Personalised risk communication for informed decision making about taking screening tests.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2013Pooled it
- Effects of communicating individual risks in screening programmes: Cochrane systematic review.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2003Pooled it
- Incorporating Ethics in Clinical Guidelines in Infectious Diseases: A Scoping Review.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- The ethical, legal and social implications of using artificial intelligence systems in breast cancer care.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2020Article
- Inside general practice ethics: guidelines 'and' 'of' or 'for' good clinical practice.London journal of primary care · 2018Article
- Monitoring and evaluation of patient involvement in clinical practice guideline development: lessons from the Multidisciplinary Guideline for Employment and Severe Mental Illness, the Netherlands.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2016Article
- The involvement of gynaecological patients in the development of a clinical guideline for resumption of (work) activities in the Netherlands.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2015Article
- Feasibility of a wiki as a participatory tool for patients in clinical guideline development.Journal of medical Internet research · 2012Article
- Everyday ethics: learning from an 'ordinary' consultation in general practice.London journal of primary care · 2011Article
- Ethics of evidence based medicine in the primary care setting.Journal of medical ethics · 2004Review
- A qualitative study of barriers to the use of statins and the implementation of coronary heart disease prevention in primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2003Article
- Care or control in the community?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2002Article
- Helping doctors with disabilities succeed in medicine.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2002Article
- An oral history of general practice 6: Beyond the practice: the changing relationship with secondary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2002Article
- Is there a tension between doctors' duty of care and evidence-based medicine?Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2002Article
- Satisfying patients' rights in Iran: Providing effective strategies.Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery researchArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Guidelines have been promoted in various roles in general practice, e.g. to improve quality of care, to assist patient decision making, and to improve resource allocation. This paper examines these claims using ethical analysis. Guidelines may help general practitioners to act for thegood of their patients and avoid harm; but, on their own, guidelines cannot ensure quality of care or the protection of patients' interests. Patient choice may be limited rather than enhanced by following guideline recommendations. Guidelines contribute to rationing of resources but do not use explicit citeria for this. The ethical implications for guideline use are complex and far-reaching
Indexed as
Identifiers
12171228PMC1314388What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.