Guidance and Position Statements

ACOEM's Foundation Guideline - General Approach to Initial Assessment and Documentation - is intended to address the initial approach to assessment of some of the most common occupational medicine clinical problems. This approach includes a medical and occupational history, identification of body part(s) involved, effect of present illness or injury on patient’s functionality, screening for disability risk factors that may affect the outcome, a detailed work history including type and duration of exposure. It is also important to maintain good recordkeeping and privacy of records when assessing patients for a work-related injury or illness.
 

The ACOEM Guidelines methodology was used to develop an evidence-based guideline on cannabis use to address workplace issues. 

The updated methodology that ACOEM utilizes for guideline development.

This guideline reviews the available evidence and provides recommendations to clinicians regarding interventions to help patients remain at or return towork. It offers an evidence-based framework for preventing and mitigating work disability for individual adults in the active workforce. It is designed for use by healthcare clinicians who desire to minimize the negative impact of health conditions on working people’s lives and livelihoods.

This is the third article summarizing the recommendations for low back disorders from the ACOEM’s Low Back Disorders Guideline. This article focuses on the invasive treatment section.

This is the second of three articles that summarize recommendations for low back disorders from the ACOEM’s Low Back Disorders Guideline. This article focuses on the non-invasive treatment section.

 

This article summarizes ACOEM's evidence-based diagnostic guidelines for low back disorders. 

This article reviews the distinction between establishing medical causation (determined by scientific criteria establishing a causal association between an injury, illness, disease, or disorder and known risk factors), and legal causation (determined by criteria established by legal authority).

The use of an opioid treatment agreement (opioid contract, doctor/patient agreement, or informed consent) is recommended to document patient education, understanding, acknowledgement of potential benefits, adverse effects, and agreement with the expectations of opioid use.