Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2007

Foreword

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is pleased to present The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services 2007, the annually updated pocket guide that puts evidence-based, "gold-standard" recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) at your fingertips. The 2007 Guide offers recommendations on 58 clinical preventive services made by the Task Force from 2001 to 2006.

Partners who have helped to promote and to distribute the Guide have been key to our successes to date. In 2006, the United Health Foundation and AHRQ entered into a partnership that allowed 430,000 copies of the 2006 USPSTF Guide to Clinical Preventive Services to be distributed to clinicians nationwide. This partnership put a valuable preventive care tool in the hands of providers, including internists, family physicians, pediatricians, osteopathic physicians, and nurse practitioners, who could best use it to maximize services to their patients.

The USPSTF recommendations are being used every day in health care settings to improve clinical practice. For example, based on a very successful pilot project, the Harris County Hospital District in Houston, Texas-the fourth-largest hospital district in the United States-used recommendations and related materials as part of a preventive services protocol in all 12 of its community health centers. In addition to its community health centers, Harris County Hospital District includes a school-based, mobile, and homeless program that reaches a population of more than 300,000 people.

We are also pleased that the Guide is being used to train new generations of clinicians. Graduate nurse practitioner students at the Kent State University School of Nursing have received an introduction to clinical prevention, which includes an overview of the Task Force, its history, and its goals. The school's electronic nursing syllabus provides a direct link to the Guide. The school also uses USPSTF screening and counseling recommendations as the basis for students' clinical assessments.

The recommendations and clinical considerations in the Guide can help you work with your patients to make better-informed decisions about preventive services. This is a key step that clinicians can take to help their patients remain healthy and to improve the quality of our health care system.

Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D.
Director
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

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