Clinical Guidelines in the System of Medical Care in Modern Russia: Theoretical Statement and Practical Aspects

Abstract

The study is devoted to the legal status of clinical guidelines as a technical and legal act in modern Russia. The purpose of the study is to substantiate and update in modern legal science the consideration of clinical guidelines as one of specific regulators of medical care in the Russian legal system. The study uses the method of comparative jurisprudence to study the legal status of clinical guidelines in foreign countries. The article examines the main historical periods of the formation and development of clinical guidelines in the system of technical and legal regulation of medical care in Russia. The definition of the concept of «clinical guidelines» is formulated, by which it is proposed to understand official enactments — documents with a standard structure and issued in a special order by specially authorized entities containing a system of scientifically grounded technical and legal norms aimed at regulating the activities of medical workers in the process of providing medical care to patients, secured by legal responsibility. Mainly through the application of a special legal method of jurisprudence, the binding nature of clinical guidelines in the Russian legal system is justified. By means of the formal legal method, the place and significance of clinical recommendations among other normative acts regulating the provision of medical care in Russia is determined. The article highlights two research plans for the functions of clinical guidelines: specific legal and socio-legal. The specific legal functions include: regulatory, protective and evaluation functions; the socio-legal functions include security, control, supervisory and methodological functions. Based on the conducted research, the authors determine the purpose of clinical guidelines, which consists in rationing medical activities in the process of providing medical care in modern Russia.