With each new edition, the recommendations in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Red Book are refined and enhanced to enable physicians to provide the best possible care to children presenting with infectious diseases. The comprehensive text
is notably supplemented by a growing assortment of tables, algorithms, charts, and graphs, many of which have become popular features among the readership. Physicians have even been known to make photocopies of their favorite items to post on their office walls or desktops for easy reference.

This speaks to an important need: Visual resources can be crucial at the point of care, and the format of a 1,200-page, 6" × 9" paperback book does not always do great favors for their accessibility. To make select, key resources more accessible and user-friendly at the point of care, I am pleased to again present the Red Book Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinical Decision Support Chart.

This fully updated resource collects many of the most clinically useful tables, algorithms, and other items from the latest edition of the Red Book and presents them in an enlarged, enhanced, colorized format that is lightweight, portable, and easy to navigate. Each item has been thoughtfully re-rendered to take best advantage of the larger format and more dynamic visual palette. Additionally, several new tables have been created exclusively for this chart, synthesizing important clinical information from throughout the Red Book text.

The guidance featured in these 16 information-rich tabs is derived directly from the 2024 Red Book and has been reviewed to ensure consistency with AAP policy. We are once again interested in hearing how it is used by physicians in practice. We encourage you to let us know which items you find most helpful day to day, which could be further refined, and which topics you wish would be covered in future editions. This clinical decision support chart has been created with daily practice at top of mind; with your help, we look forward to creating a resource that is truly responsive to the needs of physicians.

David W. Kimberlin, MD, FAAP

Editor, Red Book