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:
“Unusual precocity in children, is usually the result of an unhealthy state of the brain; and, in such cases, medical men would now direct, that the wonderful child should be deprived of all books and study, and turned to play or work in the fresh air.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)