Guidelines and evidence based medicine. The importance of stakeholder involvement

With the depenalization of professional conduct of the physician in case of adherence to the guidelines proposed by L. 189/2012 the discussion on the quality of the available guidelines in the literature has led the authors to a review with particular regard to stakeholder involvement in the elaboration process. Evident critical points arise in the accessible studies that have used as an assessment tool a scientifically validated questionnaire (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation – AGREE). As a result the solution of the legislature, although useful to contain the phenomenon of defensive medicine, may be useless and ineffective in criminal cases where fundamental and absolute rights, as the right to life and health of patients, are involved.