thanks, Patrick.That's a good way to look at the guideline...

thanks, Patrick.

That's a good way to look at the guideline process.

So the guidelines are not a creation of some public service bossy-boots saying "this is what we recommend you plebs do".

They are instead , as you say, a consensus by the doctors' peers and experts in the field ofteh best thing to do, based on available knowledge.

If the current users of TST ignore the guidelines urging them to convert to QFT, then they are in effect saying they know more than their all their peers and experts.

That's a pretty arrogant thing to do. What are the chances of doctors doing that, if switching to the recommended way is easy for them?

i just can't see what would stop them from complying. At the moment lots aren't complying - perhaps because of inertia and perhaps because they are fence-sitting -waiting for the official ruling to come out.

But when the ruling comes out, will they really continue to keep doing the old way rather than switching to the new way?

It's hard to believe that would happen.

I wonder how doctors normally respond to CDC guidelines recommending they switch from one procedure to another?

I wonder how well CDC promote their new guidelines and evaluate how well teh new recommendations have been adopted?

It would be a bit pathetic if the CDC just announced new guidelines and left it at that - no promotion, no follow-up reminders to the laggards to change their ways, etc.

Does anyone know what the CDC does after releasing guidelines?

Does anyone know how doctors respond to new guidelines? Are they obedient and cooperative or or they "antsy" and inert?