Management of otitis media and the New Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Guideline.

In these times of increasing dominance of managed care and diminishing autonomy for practitioners of medicine, any government pronouncement can be viewed as yet another of many annoyances. For otolaryngologists who yearn for the days when there were not so many intermediaries involved in patient care, the newly issued Clinical Practice Guideline, Otitis Media with Effusion in Young Children (see reference 2 for highlights) may seem more of an ominous threat than anything remotely beneficial. However, given the inexorable changes that are occurring, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) otitis media guideline is probably going to be more helpful than harmful.