The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF or Task Force) has released its “Sixth Annual Report to Congress on High-Priority Evidence Gaps for Clinical Preventive Services.”
In 2016, the USPSTF continued to fulfill its mission of improving the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screening tests, counseling about healthy behaviors, and preventive medications. These recommendations help clinicians and their patients make informed health care decisions.
In this annual report, the USPSTF identified six recent topics for which the current evidence was insufficient for the Task Force to make a recommendation, including autism screening and tobacco smoking cessation with electronic nicotine delivery systems. The USPSTF also identified evidence gaps that prevent it from making recommendations for specific populations or age groups, such as screening for breast cancer in African American women. Future research in these areas can help fill these gaps and would likely result in important new recommendations that will help to improve the health of Americans.
Please click here to read the complete USPSTF report.
