Have We Drawn the Wrong Conclusions About the Value of Care Pathways? Is a Cochrane Review Appropriate?

Care pathways are used increasingly worldwide to organize patient care. However, different views exist about their effectiveness. One of the reasons for this is that pathways are complex interventions. A recent Cochrane review was published which reported positive results, but although the Cochrane team performed excellent work with an enormous commitment, the conclusions may be inappropriate. To fully understand the potential and problems of care pathways, it is important to define (a) exactly what we are talking about (b) whether the study methods are appropriate, and (c) whether we can properly define the outcomes.