Current diagnosis of venous thromboembolism in primary care: a clinical practice guideline from the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Physicians.

This guideline summarizes the current approaches for the diagnosis of venous thromboembolism. The importance of early diagnosis to prevent mortality and morbidity associated with venous thromboembolism cannot be overstressed. This field is highly dynamic, however, and new evidence is emerging periodically that may change the recommendations. The purpose of this guideline is to present recommendations based on current evidence to clinicians to aid in the diagnosis of lower extremity deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

Leveraging improvement in quality and value in health care through a clinical performance measure framework: a recommendation of the American College of Physicians.

Policy maker efforts to evaluate the quality and costs of health care have stimulated a proliferation of disparate performance measures. This cacophony of performance measures creates confusion over which measures are applicable at which level of the health care system, limiting their effective application for accountability and improvements in patient care. The American College of Physicians (ACP) has created a clinical performance measurement framework to provide direction to policy makers and measure developers for future performance measure development and application. The ACP believes that this clinical performance measurement framework is one way to help promote transformational change in patient care through judicious application of performance measures. Recommendation. The ACP recommends that policy makers and measure developers adopt this clinical performance measurement framework to promote transformational change and improve the quality of health care in the United States.