Medical protocol can refer to:
- medical guidelines for a medical treatment. It usually includes a treatment plan, summarized consensus statements and addresses practical issues.
- Clinical protocol, which has a more specific meaning. It describes a method to be used in a clinical trial (e.g. of a drug or medical treatment) or a medical research study.
- A set of rules followed by providers such as EMTs or nurses. Often considered to be stricter than a guideline, and to carry more weight with the law, but there is no hard evidence to support this view and the terms are usually used interchangeably.
Famous quotes containing the word medical:
“Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the wearer’s character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our bodies.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)