Profesinių diagnostinių ir gydymo standartų privalomumo gydytojui problema (kaip griežtai privalomi gydytojui profesiniai diagnostikos ir gydymo standartai) ; Obligatory nature of diagnostic and treatment guidelines for the physician (how much binding are diagnostic and treatment standards for the physician)

Professional guidelines in Lithuania are legal documents that include the sets of recommendations supposed to direct diagnosing or treatment doctors’ actions. Their legal meanings are rather obscure. In some cases, they are seen as usual legal norms. Their violation implies criminal, civil or administrative sanctions. In other cases, they are seen as some kind of advice on the most preferred way of actions. Also, there are cases when they are seen as a legal permission to take some actions. This multivaluedness of medical guidelines is caused by ambivalent concepts that are used to formulate medical recommendations (“is indicated”, “should be considered”, “is recommended”, “can be reasonable”, etc.). The first step in specification of these concepts has been done by classification of medical recommendations, developed by Feinstein and Cochrane. They specified every such concept with only one kind (class) of recommendations. The next step should be further specification of doctor’s actions he is supposed to commit depending on the class of recommendation and its wording. From the legal point of view, the most important thing seems to be the difference between the actions that must be taken in the case of “strong” and “weak” recommendations. In the first case, the recommendation is obligatory and must be followed. In the second one, the decision to follow or not belongs to doctor’s discretion. Doctor’s duty in this situation is to consider all related scientific knowledge on factors both promoting and preventing the effectiveness of recommendation, which has been considered.