Clinical practice guidelines. Finding and appraising useful, relevant recommendations for geriatric care.

Practicing effective evidence-based medicine in the geriatric setting depends on routine review of the current literature and critical analysis of its relevance to the patient and condition in question. Clinical guidelines facilitate this approach and are readily available from an array of print and electronic resources. The recent growth in the number of published guidelines by medical associations, government agencies, and healthcare organizations makes determining their validity and applicability a challenging proposition. The Internet provides one of the most effective tools for quickly finding evidence-based guidelines. Appraisal involves several fundamental steps that can aid in determining whether the guidelines are valid--based on "best evidence"--and clinically relevant.