Adherence to Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Clinical practice guidelines are designed to synthesize and disseminate the best available evidence to guide clinical practice. The goal is to increase high-quality care and reduce inappropriate interventions. Clinical practice guidelines that systematically review evidence and synthesize it into recommendations are important because the available scientific evidence is normally neither rapidly nor broadly incorporated into practice. It is important to understand and improve the impact of our American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation clinical practice guidelines on this uptake of scientific knowledge. Considering the barriers to guideline adherence is a central part of this. This understanding can guide clinicians, future guideline authors, and researchers when using guidelines, writing them, and planning clinically relevant research.