Clinical Practice Guidelines

Clinical Practice Guidelines are valuable tools that will allow you to advance the physician-patient communications process and enhance the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.

AAOS physician volunteer Work Groups develop Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines to serve as an educational tool based on an assessment of the current scientific and clinical information and accepted approaches to treatment.

Clinical Practice Guideline Progress Report

• Information about guidelines in development

About AAOS Clinical Practice Guidelines

• Guideline FAQ
• Guideline Development Procedures and Processes
• Tools for Work Groups
• Search AAOS Now for Articles about Guidelines

Nominating a Topic for AAOS Guideline Development

• Any AAOS member may nominate a topic
• The AAOS Guidelines Oversight Committee will review all topic nominations on an annual basis.  If your topic is selected you will be notified. 
• Click here to submit a form to nominate a topic
• Specialty societies that wish to collaborate with AAOS, or that wish to use AAOS resources in preparing guidelines must use the AAOS methodology and processes for guideline development.

Understanding Guideline Language

* For the work group to make a consensus-based recommendation, the recommendation must be supported by a rationale that follows specific rules.

Comments on Guidelines

• AAOS members are invited to submit comments regarding published guidelines (requires AAOS login)

AAOS Endorsing External Clinical Practice Guidelines

• AAOS Endorsed Guidelines
• Process for reviewing an external clinical practice guideline for endorsement

Other Clinical Practice Guideline Resources

• National Guidelines Clearinghouse is a resource for the public seeking evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.
• Information about performance and quality measures can be obtained from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality

For non-evidence based AAOS statements please visit the web page for AAOS Position Statements.

For more information about Evidence-Based Medicine, please contact Leeaht Gross, MPH, Evidence-Based Medicine Coordinator, Department of Research and Scientific Affairs, at gross@aaos.org.