5. The patients’ views and preferences should be sought

The driving force behind the development of clinical guidelines is the desire to improve standards of patient care. Information about patients' experiences and expectations of health care should inform the development of clinical guidelines, and patients should be fully involved in the process. For example, the development group could involve patients' representatives, or information obtained from patient interviews or literature reviews of patient's experiences could be considered by the group. Wherever possible, patients or their representatives are included as full members of SIGN guideline development groups.

• Development annex (group composition, patient involvement)
• GDG page from example guideline