Guideline recommendations and results: the importance of the linkage

Whereas guidelines make suggestions, performance measures convey what must be done for a patient. To transform a guideline recommendation into a performance measure, the supporting evidence should be unassailable, and the net benefit to patients should be clear. The article by Hepner and colleagues provides an example of the type of research that we should strive to provide before we transform guideline recommendations based on imperfect evidence into a performance measur