Family Practice 2018 | 2026 Edition |

The 2017 ACC/AHA guideline (fully adopted by family practices in 2018) redefined hypertension:

One of the most defining aspects of family practice in 2018 was the release of major clinical guidelines that refined how family physicians approached preventive care. family practice 2018

: Guidelines from 2018 placed a heavy emphasis on mental health, advocating for regular depression screening in both adults and adolescents using tools like the PHQ-9 . This year marked a push toward "behavioral health integration," where mental health services were embedded directly within primary care offices to reduce stigma and improve access. Cancer Screening Refinements : The 2017 ACC/AHA guideline (fully adopted by family

Issue a “safety-net prescription”—give the patient a dated prescription with instructions: “Fill only if fever or ear pain worsens after 48–72 hours.” In 2018, most EHRs support delayed start dates for e-prescriptions. payment reform momentum

Family practice in 2018 was a year of transition: early technology adoption, payment reform momentum, and broadened scope of care (mental health and social needs). Those trends laid groundwork for deeper transformations that followed and continue to shape how family physicians deliver patient-centered, team-based primary care.

The journal BMC Family Practice published significant studies in 2018, including research on using neuropsychiatric interviews for depression and the use of public performance reporting by general practitioners.