The development and meaning of appropriateness guidelines.

Practice guidelines are important for high quality and economical patient care. As gatekeepers to health care, primary care physicians should refer to imaging guidelines when treating a patient with breast disease. The American College of Radiology (ACR) has undertaken the task of publishing guidelines for breast imaging in the hopes of avoiding a plethora of competing, possibly contradictory guidelines written by groups less qualified in imaging protocol than the ACR and with the goal of minimizing the dilemmas of interpretation and patient management often present in breast imaging.