By use of guidelines for clinical practise, it is hoped to increase quality and cost-efficiency of medical care. This proposal aims at enhancing and ensuring the Union-wide availability of guideline-relevant information to users, health care agencies, developers and implementors.

Information on institutions responsible for health care in the EU-member states, on major quality management programmes as well as on projects concerning guidelines will be compiled. Based on this account and existing implementation approaches, scenarioe for putting computer-based guidelines into practise will be made and their feasibility scrutinised in collaboration with the relevant institutions of all participating countries.

Given the diversity of the health care systems in the EU member states these scenarios will focus on organisational and structural aspects of guideline development and implementation. Of major concern are asoects of validation, quality control, approval by authoritative bodies, financing, and education.

This effort is directed to establish an infrastructure for implementing computer-based guidelines for a cost-efficient health care at better quality. proGuide is a first step into this direction and will shoe how the different components will be supported by an infrastructure which includes besides technical aspects the financing of this kernel of guideling development on an interdisciplinary way.

The project will widely use electronic media for this purpose and establish a network between users, health care agencies and authorities, medical professionals' organisations and developers of telematic products. Results will in this network be distributed via a WWW server which will be integrated into an existing on-line service for physicians and enable feedback by the users.