Food & Health Alliance

SIGN was formed in 1993 in order to improve the quality of health care for patients in Scotland by reducing variation in practice and outcome, through the development and dissemination of national clinical guidelines containing recommendations for effective practice based on current evidence.

The membership of SIGN includes all the medical specialties, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, professions allied to medicine, patients, health service managers, social services, and researchers. Since 1 January 2005 SIGN has been part of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

Many of the SIGN guidelines relate to the NHS priority areas of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mental health. Comments on any of the published guidelines are welcome and will be used to inform the review process.

Clinical guidelines are systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances. Guidelines provide recommendations for effective practice in the management of clinical conditions where variations in practice are known to occur and where effective care may not be delivered uniformly throughout Scotland.

There are many guidelines available, but most are based on a consensus of 'expert opinion' or a non-systematic review of the scientific literature. The evidence based guidelines developed by SIGN are derived from a systematic review of the scientific evidence, and are therefore less susceptible to bias in their conclusions and recommendations.