Therapeutic guidelines applied to health economics: bioethics assessment

Abstract

Government agencies, pharmaceutical companies or medical specialty societies have employed therapeutic guidelines in order to standardize practices, when facing specific, pre-determined clinical situations. The start of the production of such documents was needed because studies realized that the adequacy of various medical procedures was uncertain, with sub-optimal outcomes. This study proposes to investigate the importance of the origin of therapeutic guidelines and its potential conflicts of interest. In addition, we will investigate the ethical implications of the professional conduct, in accordance or not with therapeutic guidelines, when there is the potential antagonism between the document and professional autonomy and social responsibility, according to the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, from UNESCO.