Revista argentina de cardiología
versión On-line ISSN 1850-3748
GIORGI, Mariano A et al. Survey on Clinical Practice Guidelines Use among Latin American CardiologistsSurvey on Clinical Practice Guidelines Use among Latin American Cardiologist Background. Rev. argent. cardiol. [online]. 2012, vol.80, n.2, pp. 108-113. ISSN 1850-3748.
There is a broad consensus about the benefits of applying Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) as a standard of care and most countries, even in Latin America; however, the applicability of CPGs to medical practice is lower than expected. The failure in the implementation of CPGs is due to several factors, including physicians' lack of adherence. Objectives To estimate the utilization rate of CPGs and to know the objections of Latin American cardiologists against them. Material and Methods We conducted an anonymous email survey among 10% of the Spanish-speaking members of the Interamerican Society of Cardiology that were randomly selected. The questions included demographic data, use of CPGs and objections to use them. We assumed that most of the respondents would make a positive answer when asked about the use CPGs; yet, we also assumed that they would criticize and comment the limitations of CPGs if they were induced to do so. Results The survey was responded by 952 of the 1197 cardiologists selected. The utilization rate of CPGs was 91.5%; 75.8% (660/871) used foreign and local guidelines, while 24.2% only used local CPGs. 58.2% of survey respondents had at least one objection to the quality or usefulness of CPGs. The most common complaints were that the guidelines proposed the use of resources that were not always available (11.5%), recommended impractical strategies due to lack of medical coverage (9.2%) and did not represent the patients in real practice (7.7%). Among those who did not use CPGs, 22.2% did not know the last guidelines published. Conclusions Although the utilization of CPGs is high, the objections about their usefulness constitute a barrier to improve the adherence of cardiologists to use them. These data should be considered to improve the production, diffusion and implementation of CPGs in Latin America.
Palabras llave : Clinical Practice Guideline; Cardiology.