Retrospective Analysis on Clinical Pathway Literatures

Objective. To consult related documents, retrospectively study related research literature regarding the implementation of clinical pathway in China, and obtain knowledge of the status quo of clinical pathway application and the trend of its development in China. Method. Using the full-text databases of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure-China Hospital Knowledge Database (CHKD) periodicals as the data source, 1996–2010 as the time period and clinical pathway as the retrieval method to search for the literature data; performing analysis and research by processing data with Excel software, and using the literature metrology method, process analysis and retrospective research method. The Chinese literatures regarding clinical pathway between 1996 and 2010 are counted in terms of the distribution of basic research, application research and development research, respectively. Result. A total of 1,172 documents of clinical pathway research from 1996 to 2010 are obtained, and it is noted that the amount of research literature increases year by year. The content of the research literature is mainly based on application research, especially application foundation. Conclusion. The related research literatures of the clinical pathway in China rise year by year, research fields are diversified, but systematic methodology guidance is not available, and the medical staff's understanding of the concept of evidence-based medicine is relatively weak. Large-scale systematic reference collection shall be performed in the application of clinical pathway, to promote the development of clinical pathway research.