A<unk>  (also called a clinical<unk> , clinical protocol or clinical practice<unk>  is a document with the aim of guiding decisions and criteria regarding diagnosis, management, and treatment in specific areas of healthcare. Such documents have been in use for thousands of years during the entire history of medicine. However, in contrast to previous approaches, which were often based on tradition or authority, modern<unk> s are based on an examination of current evidence within the paradigm of evidence-based medicine. They usually include summarized consensus statements, but unlike the latter, they also address practical issues.
Modern clinical<unk> s briefly identify, summarize and evaluate the best evidence and most current data about prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy including dosage of medications, risk/benefit and cost-effectiveness. Then they define the most important questions related to clinical practice and identify all possible decision options and their outcomes. Some<unk> s contain decision or computation algorithms to be followed. Thus, they integrate the identified decision points and respective courses of action to the clinical judgment and experience of practitioners. Many<unk> s place the treatment alternatives into classes to help providers in deciding which treatment to use.
Additional objectives of clinical<unk> s are to standardize medical care, to raise quality of care, to reduce several kinds of risk (to the patient, to the healthcare provider, to medical insurers and health plans) and to achieve the best balance between cost and medical parameters such as effectiveness, specificity, sensitivity, resolutiveness, etc. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that the use of<unk> s by healthcare providers such as hospitals is an effective way of achieving the objectives listed above, although they are not the only ones.
Special computer software packages known as<unk>  execution engines have been developed to facilitate the use of<unk> s in concert with an electronic medical record system. 
The<unk>  Interchange Format (GLIF) is a computer representation format for clinical<unk> s that can be used with such engines.
It has been found that some simple clinical practice<unk> s are not routinely followed to the extent they might be. It has been found that providing a nurse or other medical assistant with a checklist of recommended procedures can result in the attending physician being reminded in a timely manner regarding procedures that might have been overlooked.
The<unk> -based approach to healthcare is a relatively recent one and has originated in the United States in the 1990s.<unk> s are usually produced at national or international levels by medical associations or governmental bodies, such as the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Local healthcare providers may produce their own set of<unk> s or adapt them from existing top-level<unk> s.
The USA and other countries maintain<unk>  clearinghouses. In the USA, the National<unk>  Clearinghouse maintains a catalog of high-quality<unk> s published by various organizations (mostly professional physician organizations). In the United Kingdom, clinical practice<unk> s are published primarily by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). In The Netherlands, two bodies (CBO and NHG) publish specialist and primary care<unk> s, respectively. In Germany, the  German Agency for Quality in Medicine (AEZQ) coordinates a national program for disease management<unk> s. All these organisations are now members of the<unk> s International Network, an international not-for-profit association of organisations and individuals involved in clinical practice<unk> s. G-I-N is owner of the International<unk>  Library - the largest web based data base of<unk> s worldwide.
Medical guideline
Medical therapy template
Injury cover
Microbiology template
Mobile health
Essential medicines
Surface science
MagForce Nanotechnologies