[Guidance of medical experts]

Guidance is an issue of growing importance for physicians responsible for medical experts working in public health services and on medical advisory boards. The challenge of ethics on the one hand and the constraints of economy on the other hand have considerable impact on the demands for quantity as well as quality of the expert opinions. Thus, executive staff in these organisations reflect as to whether and how they can influence performance through guidance. A short summary of the results of research on the subject of guidance - concerning the aspects (i) guidance as an interaction of people, (ii) guidance as a task in a concrete situation and (iii) guidance as a systemic process of development - shows and points out a wide range of possibilities for staff management and personnel development of medical consultants. Guidance of medical experts is possible and necessary in order to develop the professionalism of medical experts, in order to ensure quality, conformity to standards and efficiency of medical expertise, as well as for a future-oriented development of the medical advisory boards themselves.