Bright Futures: Health Care Professionals Tools and Resources

Bright Futures materials are useful and flexible and can be used in many different types of clinical settings, ranging from private-sector group practices to school-based health centers to inpatient tertiary care facilities.

These innovative practitioners have used the Bright Futures Guidelines and related materials for health promotion in their communities. Specific tools have been adapted and developed to address unique practice or clinic needs. Additional Bright Futures clinical practice resources will be developed and released across 2008.

Here are just a few examples of the ways in which Bright Futures is being used to effectively guide direct clinical care.

Using Bright Futures During Patient Visits and as a Reference

Georgia — Bright Futures anticipatory guidance is used as part of EPSDT well-child exams.
Illinois — A private pediatric practice in suburban Chicago uses Bright Futures guidelines when meeting with families. The doctor gives families a handout at each visit that incorporates the Bright Futures guidelines.
New York — A family physician uses Bright Futures Encounter Forms and nutrition materials constantly to guide his discussions with families. He also distributes the Nutrition Fact Sheets to patients and families.
Virginia — A private practice in Chesapeake considers Bright Futures as the “template” for all well-child care. The practice has incorporated Bright Futures materials in its documentation and anticipatory guidance.

Customizing Bright Futures To Create Tools for Patient Care

California — A pediatrician working with Kaiser Permanente of Northern California created Bright Systems®, which includes a Physician Practice Survey, a spreadsheet of guidelines, Speed Charting, age-based forms for physicians, Healthy Kids-Healthy Futures, age-based information for families, Health Questionnaires, age-based risk assessment resource, and Safety Questionnaires. Health care professionals who use Bright Systems have reported that it has saved time, improved office documentation, and improved well-child visits. All or a part of Bright Systems has been implemented in Kaiser Permanente's Northern and Southern California regions and the Mid-Atlantic regions.
Maine — MaineCare has developed new clinical forms based on Bright Futures materials. These forms are used to guide well-child visits and also serve to ensure consistency of EPSDT visits.
New Mexico — An Albuquerque doctor has taken information from Bright Futures materials to develop questionnaires for parents in his practice. These questionnaires have allowed doctors in the practice to focus on the most important issues during the visit.
Oregon — Staff in a pediatric/multispecialty practice use Bright Futures preventive and nutritional health materials as a foundation for customizing the practice’s electronic medical record system for well-child care.
Virginia — The state has developed a new Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessment tool inspired by Bright Futures. Two private practices in the state use Bright Futures-based clinical forms and guidelines to help meet requirements for well-child visits.

See the Clinical Practice section for more information and resources.