Appropriate use criteria

Appropriate Use Criteria determine when or how often a particular procedure should be performed. Appropriate Use Criteria are often called AUC. The goal of AUC are to improve the quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of health care.

Several factors are important for determining AUC, including:

• Available scientific evidence

• Individual patient characteristics

• Risk/benefit of treatment

• Available health care resources

AUC have been shown to improve patient selection for medical interventions. They lead to improvements in clinical outcomes and patient-reported, health-related quality of life. They also improve diagnostic yield, or the probability that the selected medical technique will provide the information needed to establish a definitive diagnosis. Finally, AUC can reduce overall cost and unwarranted use of resources. 

There are important differences between AUC and clinical guidelines. The latter often focus on more disease-specific recommendations. AUC are highly patient-centered and can provide physicians with detailed guidance about diagnostic or treatment approaches for a variety of patients and scenarios that occur in clinical practice.

AUC facilitate this decision-making based on the available clinical evidence plus collective clinical experience and the judgment of a panel of physicians. 

It helps to understand AUC to see the scoring for Mohs surgery.

• Appropriate (Score 7-9): The use of the procedure is appropriate for the specific indication and is generally considered acceptable.

• Uncertain (Score 4-6): The use of the procedure is uncertain for the specific indication, although its use may be appropriate and acceptable. Uncertainty implies that more research is needed to classify the indication definitively.

• Inappropriate (Score 1-3): Use of the procedure is inappropriate for the specific indication and generally is not considered acceptable.

AUC are designed to ensure high-quality dermatological patient care while considering the many variables that affect clinical decision-making.

Additional AAD Resources