This post was authored by Richard J. Kovacs, MD, FACC, chair-elect of the Clinical Quality Committee, and Andrea M. Russo, MD, FACC, chair of the Best Practice and Quality Improvement Subcommittee of the ACC Clinical Quality Committee.

For over 20 years, the ACC and American Heart Association (AHA) have jointly been producing clinical practice guidelines that serve as the foundation of care. During this time, the ACC has also produced many programs and derivative products to facilitate implementation of the guidelines, often with limited impact and sustainability. Recently, the College began looking at ways to better leverage technology to meet the demand for quick access to up-to-date information. It is with recognition of the importance of and need for mobile-friendly tools that facilitate optimal guideline use and dissemination that the ACC has developed its new Guideline Clinical App.

The ACC Guideline Clinical App is intended to be the mobile home for the busy clinician to access summary guideline content and related tools such as risk scores, dosing calculators and algorithms for reference, study and clinical decision making. This first release of the App was developed over six months by a multidisciplinary team of clinical and non-clinical experts, led by the Best Practice Quality Improvement Subcommittee of the ACC Clinical Quality Committee. It includes content from the Heart Failure, Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Risk guidelines. The App will be updated with the Atrial Fibrillation and Valvular Heart Disease guidelines in December, with further updates and additional content planned on an ongoing basis. The content release is phased to allow ACC to gather member and user feedback along the way, evaluate the process and product, and work with members on finding new and better ways to deliver guidelines content to clinicians.

Along with the Guideline Modernization Initiative, which is exploring new formats in the writing process that will allow guideline content to more easily be searched and organized, the App is one more way the ACC is updating the development of guidelines and the dissemination of guidelines-based care. While the App is starting with existing guideline content, the vision moving forward is to make mobile access a standard part of the release of all ACC/AHA guidelines.

ACC’s Guideline Clinical App is intended for any clinician treating patients with cardiovascular disease, whether in cardiology, primary care or other specialties across all care settings. It is available for free in both the iTunes and Google Play stores, and can be found by searching “ACC Guidelines”.

We encourage you to start using the App in practice and let us know how we can make guideline content delivery even better.  Share your feedback:

• Complete this feedback survey
• Leave comments on the App’s iTunes or Google Play page

We look forward to having you help shape the future of how guideline content is delivered to clinicians!

< Back to Listings