Abstract
Evidence-based guidelines are increasingly used in the management of osteoporosis and have the potential to produce uniformly high standards of clinical care across different sectors of the health service. National guidelines for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis are now available in a number of countries and, although sharing similarities, also differ in some respects. This review considers the challenges involved in the development and implementation of guidelines and proposes a paradigm for the unification of guidelines in the future.