AAN Practice Guidelines & Tools

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) develops clinical practice guidelines to assist its members in clinical decision making related to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of neurologic disorders. Each guideline makes specific practice recommendations based upon a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation of all available scientific data.

To learn more about AAN clinical practice guidelines, read the following articles published in Neurology®.

Invited Article: Lost in a jungle of evidence: We need a compass Neurology 2008 71: 1634–1638.

Invited Article: Practice parameters and technology assessments: What they are, what they are not, and why you should care Neurology 2008 71: 1639–1643.

Access the Podcast.

From this page you can access full text versions of AAN guidelines, clinician summaries, patient versions, slide presentations, PDA versions, and other tools to help you learn about and use the guidelines.

The AAN also offers an enhanced, in-depth search tool, enabling members to find the right guideline or associated tool to care for patients. Search the full text of any Academy guideline or tool, or limit a search to specific topics, tools, or date ranges. Sort the results by date, topic, relevance or tool type.

AAN guidelines are used to:

• Improve health outcomes of patients
• Stay abreast of the latest in clinical research
• Appeal payment denials
• Provide Medico-legal protection
• Advocate for fair reimbursement
• Determine whether your practice follows current, best evidence
• Affirm the role of neurologists in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders
• Influence public or hospital policy
• Promote efficient use of resources
• Identify research priorities based on gaps in current literature