Abstract
Though advances in medical science have created improved therapies, often these are not widely provided throughout the health-care system. Also, there is growing recognition of the lack of safety in health-care delivery. The development of evidence-based, best practice, national guidelines has been encouraged to reduce unnecessary variation in care and for improving quality. Adoption of guidelines through local protocols has been disappointingly slow. This paper explores the parallel developments in safety and quality-of-care assessment, evidence-based medicine, guideline creation, and how development of national and international quality-improvement campaigns are promoting rapid change in care delivery processes. I discuss how this new opportunity can improve the quality of respiratory care and enhance the adoption of respiratory care protocols.
- protocols
- guidelines
- best practice
- translational research
- clinical practice
- respiratory care
- quality improvement
- evidence-based medicine
Footnotes
- Correspondence: Charles G Durbin Jr MD FAARC, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia Health Science Center, PO Box 800710, Charlottesville VA 22908–0170. E-mail: cgd8v{at}virginia.edu.
Charles G Durbin Jr MD FAARC presented a version of this paper as the Kittredge Memorial Lecture at the 52nd International Respiratory Congress of the American Association for Respiratory Care, held December 11–14, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- Copyright © 2007 by Daedalus Enterprises Inc.
