Clinical Practice Guidelines and Their Role in Determining the Standard of Medical Care in Light of the Corpus of the Council of Europe.

Clinical practice guidelines are frequently considered a source of medical knowledge and guidance on how medical interventions should be conducted. The relevance of such guidelines was recognised by the Council of Europe, which perceives them not only as a tool for safeguarding the appropriate quality of healthcare but also as a measure that can be used to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights. Because the use of the guidelines' potential depends on their quality and authority, the Council of Europe explores the conditions that should be met to recognise guidelines as an appropriate model of conduct for healthcare professionals. Conclusions resulting from Council recommendations may be used to highlight the consequences of the interaction between medical standards and fundamental rights, and to ascertain whether and on what conditions it is possible to use clinical guidelines as a determinant of medical standards and benchmarks for assessing the acts of healthcare professionals.