Clinical Guidelines and Recommendations

Evidence-based research provides the basis for sound clinical practice guidelines and recommendations. The database of guidelines available from the National Guideline Clearinghouse and the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are especially useful.

National Guideline Clearinghouse™

The National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC), an AHRQ initiative, is a publicly available database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents. Updated weekly with new content, the NGC provides physicians and other health professionals, health care providers, health plans, integrated delivery systems, purchasers, and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining objective, detailed information on clinical practice guidelines and to further their dissemination, implementation, and use.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)

Created in 1984, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF or Task Force) is an independent group of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, or preventive medications. The USPSTF is made up of 16 volunteer members who come from the fields of preventive medicine and primary care, including internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, behavioral health, obstetrics/gynecology, and nursing. All members volunteer their time to serve on the USPSTF, and most are practicing clinicians.

Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2012-2014

The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services includes U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening, counseling, and preventive medication topics and includes clinical considerations for each topic. This new pocket guide is an authoritative source for making decisions about preventive services.

Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2014 ( PDF version - 2.25 MB )

Clinical Practice Guidelines Archive

Between 1992 and 1996, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) sponsored development of a series of 19 clinical practice guidelines. These guideline products are no longer viewed as guidance for current medical practice, and are provided for archival purposes only.