Guidelines for Medical Practice and the Future of Medicine

Abstract

The practice of medicine becomes more complex from year to year, and the number of options available in the management of patients continually increases at a high rate. The influx of published research is so large that even when reading is limited to the most prominent journals in a specific specialty, one can hardly cope with the new and often conflicting information. Major technological applications learned in medical school may become outdated by the time one completes residency. Time constraints make it difficult for physicians to contemplate and consider all the options available for each clinical case so as to optimize the management of a given patient. How to cope with this situation? One solution is to set up medical practice situations that mandate the actions to be taken in each particular clinical situation. Such mandating can be readily implemented by medical insurance compensatory policy. Those standards can be developed