deploy resources and how the projections of health and cost outcomes offered by guidelines relate to their specific circumstances and objectives. A second, practical reason for the committee's position is that developers of guidelines may be nearly overwhelmed in responding to the expectations already laid out for them in this report and elsewhere. In the committee's view, it is important that they concentrate on these tasks and show that they can build a credible foundation for better decisions by practitioners, patients, and others. The next chapter pursues this point.