Clinical Recommendations

• Browse the AAFP's clinical recommendations by topic from A to Z
• View the AAFP's clinical policies
• Download a summary of the AAFP's Recommendations for Clinical Preventive Services
• Clinical Practice Guideline Webcast Series from the AAFP
  The AAFP’s clinical practice guideline (CPG) webcast series will expand your knowledge regarding evaluating and implementing guidelines in your practice to lead to improved patient outcomes. Learn more about CPG development, how to conduct a systematic review, rate available evidence, write recommendations to implement in practice and assess the quality and usefulness of a CPG​.
  
  CPGs can optimize patient-centered, evidence-based care by framing clinical decisions and supporting best practices—key measures in becoming a patient-centered medical home (PCMH). Clinical practice guidelines from the AAFP use rigorous standards to ensure recommendations are supported by good quality evidence, relevant to family medicine and free from bias.

Choosing Wisely®

The Choosing Wisely® campaign, an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation, was started to promote conversations between physicians and patients by helping patients choose care that is supported by evidence, not duplicative of other tests or procedures already received, free from harm and truly necessary.

The AAFP is one of the leading physician specialty societies that has committed to support Choosing Wisely® with the goal of ensuring high-quality, cost-effective care to patients. To help reduce unnecessary or harmful treatments and tests, the AAFP has identified 15 tests and procedures that both doctors and patients should carefully consider and openly discuss before incorporating them into a treatment plan. For more information on Choosing Wisely® from the AAFP, click here.

Resources to Help Incorporate Choosing Wisely Into Practice

The AAFP's clinical journal, American Family Physician (AFP), has taken a multifaceted approach to promoting the Choosing Wisely campaign and making the recommendations easily accessible. The AFP medical editors have identified and organized the nearly 180 recommendations that are particularly relevant to primary care clinicians. Users can search those recommendations by keyword, topic area, sponsoring organization or source on the AFP website and choose which related information -- rationale, topic area, sponsoring organization and/or source -- to display alongside the recommendations retrieved. Users also can download a table showing the complete list of primary care-relevant recommendations as a PDF. Both the search tool and the table will be updated on a monthly basis as more recommendations are released.

View and download patient education handouts about tests and procedures to consider carefully from FamilyDoctor.org.