NEED YOUR IDEAS: US Preventive Services Task Force Topic Nominations

The US Preventive Services Task Force is soliciting nominations for clinical preventive health topics.  Nominations can be submitted by individuals or organizations.  I think it would be great to submit a GeriPal topic.  Can you think of Geriatrics and Palliative care issues in preventive terms?  There are recommendations for cancer screening in the elderly (mostly age based cutoffs), hearing and visual loss, but nothing about screening for chronic pain in the elderly (other than counseling for low back pain), falls, dementia, or advance care planning.  For a list of current recommendations for adults, click here.  Try and think of things that will spin the USPSTF in a very positive light.  After the disastrous press over mammography recommendations for women in their 40’s last year, they’re probably looking for topics that will play well with the public (or at the very least spin their topics better to the press).

The following details what the USPSTF is looking for in a nomination and their criteria for selection (from this page).

The USPSTF will first determine if the topic relates to a service is eligible, i.e., constitutes primary or secondary prevention applicable to healthy asymptomatic persons; is primary care-feasible or referable from primary care; and addresses a condition with a substantial health burden. As a second step, within eligible topics, the USPSTF will prioritize based on the following set of criteria: Public health importance (burden of suffering, potential of preventive service to reduce the burden); and potential for greatest Task Force impact (e.g., clinical controversy, practice does not reflect evidence, inappropriate timing in delivery of services).

Nominations must be less than 500 words and be in the following format:

1. Name of topic.

2. Rationale for consideration by the USPSTF, describing:

a. Characterization as primary or secondary prevention topic (screening, counseling or preventive education).

b. Primary care relevance (applicable clinical preventive service must be provided by a primary care provider and or initiated in the primary care setting which can be defined as family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics or obstetrics/gynecology).

c. Public health importance (burden of disease/suffering, potential of preventive service to reduce burden, including effective interventions). Citations and supporting documents are recommended.

d. Potential impact of USPSTF’s review of the topic, i.e., change in clinical practice, research focus, etc.

Please submit your ideas in the comments, and we’ll see if we can come up with something worth submitting by the deadline, August 27th.

by: Alex Smith