What do the ACOEM Medicine Practice Guidelines say?
The ACOEM Guidelines are a helpful guide in the overall approach to the care of musculoskeletal injuries. They provide a helpful general approach to the basic principles of diagnosis and treatment of injuries and illness in workers. Differential diagnosis algorithms and expectations for duration of disability relating to specific conditions is provided. General insight to the utility of various diagnostic modalities to detect specific conditions is offered. General guidelines for appropriate application of physical medicine techniques are provided, but specific utilization targets are not offered. “The scientific literature that serves as the foundation for the development of clinical guidelines is of mixed quality. While most clinical practice guidelines cite the literature on which they are based, the final decision regarding the implications of the studies involved is the consensus opinion of those who develop the guidelines.” “Guidelines can be evidence based only to the extent tha
