AFP Clinical Answers at the point of care

- Jennifer Middleton, MD, MPH

Family physicians have an average of 15-20 clinical questions every day while caring for patients. Identifying trustworthy sources of online or app-based content requires family physicians to identify "whether the reference clearly states how strong the evidence is to support recommendations about patient care." If AFP is one of your trusted sources of answers, you may find our new department, AFP Clinical Answers, of particular interest.

The January 1, 2019 issue of AFP includes the first AFP Clinical Answers article covering nausea in pregnancy, knee osteoarthritis, hormone therapy, and the shingles vaccine. Each content area has a brief paragraph providing key information along with a hyperlink to a more in-depth AFP article. As AFP Editor-in-Chief Dr. Sumi Sexton writes introducing the department, "The goal of this department is to share key clinical questions and their evidence-based answers directly from the journal's content. Our hope is that readers will find these answers useful for patient care and serve as a reminder of the topics we've covered."

If you're interested in further expanding your point of care resources, AFP's Point-of-Care Guides collection provides one-page commentary on the latest evidence base pertinent to many common patient care issues. FPM's (formerly Family Practice Management) SPPACES: App Reviews Department includes reviews for both point-of-care apps for clinicians as well as useful apps for patients. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) also has a "Practical Tools for Primary Care Practice" website with tools and guides on everything from clinical practice guidelines to becoming a high-performing team. 

Don't forget about the "Favorites" feature on the top of the AFP home page, where you can bookmark common resources (from AFP and/or anywhere on the internet) for quick access. You can connect to the Evidence-Based Medicine toolkit from the home page for a refresher on reviewing strength of evidence terms, and you can access the AFP podcast from the home page, too, which frequently features suggestions for additional resources related to content in the print journal.

How are you planning to expand your point of care acumen in 2019?