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[Why not standard practice guidelines in Japan?]
1Department of Surgery, Cancer Institute Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Insights
Medical practice guidelines assist clinical decisions in Western countries, aiming to reduce costs and improve care. This paper introduces their development and benefits to spark interest in Japan.
Area of Science:
- Medical practice guidelines
- Health services research
- Clinical decision-making
Context:
- Western countries have focused on medical practice guidelines since the mid-1980s.
- Guidelines aim to standardize care, reduce costs, and improve patient outcomes.
- There is a notable lack of attention to practice guidelines in Japan's medical community.
Purpose:
- To introduce the concept and importance of medical practice guidelines.
- To review the development cycle of these guidelines.
- To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of implementing medical practice guidelines.
Summary:
- This paper reviews medical practice guidelines, their development, and their pros and cons.
- It highlights their established role in Western healthcare for decision support and cost reduction.
- The review serves as an introduction to a symposium aimed at increasing awareness in Japan.
Impact:
- Aims to stimulate discussion and adoption of medical practice guidelines in Japan.
- Potential to reduce healthcare variations and improve patient outcomes in the Japanese context.
- Contributes to the discourse on evidence-based healthcare practices in Japan.
Abstract:
The issue of medical practice guidelines has attracted the attention of doctors and health care professionals in Western countries since the middle 1980s. Such guidelines aim to assist in clinical decision-making in order to reduce variations in care and unnecessary costs for delivered health care service, and to improve the outcomes of medical care. Strangely, however, there is no interest or attention given to this topic in the medical and health care fields in Japan. As the president of the 71st Japanese Gastric Cancer Association, the author hopes to generate interest in this topic by opening a symposium at the annual meeting of the JGCA this year. As an introduction to this session, the present paper provides a short review of medical practice guidelines, their development cycle, and their advantages and disadvantages.