I am reviewing a manuscript about the trustworthiness of guidelines for a prominent medical journal. I have written editorials on this topic in the past (http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=183430 and http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1384244). The authors of the paper I am reviewing reviewed the recommendations made by 3 separate medical societies on the use of a certain medication for patients with atrial fibrillation. The data on this drug can be summarized as follows: little benefit, much more harm. But as you would expect these specialists recommended its use in the same sentence as other safer and more proven therapies. They basically ignored the side effects and only focused on the minimal benefits.

Why do many guideline developers keep doing this? They just can’t seem to develop guidelines properly. Unfortunately their biased products have weight with insurers, the public, and the legal system. The reasons are complex but solvable. A main reason (in my opinion) is that they are stuck in their ways. Each society has its guideline machine and they churn them out the same way year after year. Why would they change? Who is holding them accountable? Certainly not journal editors. (As a side note: the journals that publish these guidelines are often owned by the same subspecialty societies that developed the guidelines. Hmmmm. No conflicts there.)

The biggest problem though is conflicts of interest. There is intellectual COI. Monetary COI. Converting data to recommendations requires judgment and judgment involves values. Single specialty medical society guideline development panels involve the same types of doctors that have shared values. But I always wonder how much did the authors of these guidelines get from the drug companies? Are they so married to this drug that they don’t believe the data? Is it ignorance? Are they so intellectually dishonest that they only see benefits and can’t understand harm? I don’t think we will ever truly understand this process without having a proverbial fly on the wall present during guideline deliberations.

Until someone demands a better job of guideline development I still consider them opinion pieces or at best consensus statements. We need to quit placing so much weight on them in quality assessment especially when some guidelines, like these, recommend harmful treatment.