Overview
This Clinical Guide—designed to accompany the Bright Futures Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents—provides authoritative, evidence-based guidance about the most effective and efficient ways to deliver child preventive services.
The Issue
Among its many provisions to improve health insurance coverage, the 2010 health reform legislation mandates coverage of preventive services for infants, young children, and adolescents, including evidence-based preventive care and screenings as outlined in the comprehensive guidelines—Bright Futures—supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration and developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Bright Futures guidelines offer recommendations to help pediatricians and other child health clinicians improve the quality and efficiency of care for children and adolescents. There remained a need for best practices on how to provide essential preventive care services.
Intervention
The Clinical Guide was written by experts in child health care. It is divided into five sections—Introduction; History, Observation, and Surveillance; Physical Exam; Screening; and Anticipatory Guidance—and serves as a "how-to" manual. It is intended to be used by pediatric providers as well as medical students, residents, public health works, and other professionals who care for young children and adolescents.
For More Information
To download the Clinical Guide, please visit the Bright Futures Web site http://brightfutures.aap.org/continuing_education.html.