Understanding the Methods Used by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in Developing Recommendations

The USPSTF Steps: Brief and Generic

1. Define key questions and outcomes, including an analytic framework, for each Task Force topic subgroup.
2. Define, retrieve and summarize relevant evidence (EPCs).
3. Judge quality of individual studies: good, fair, poor (EPCs).
4. Synthesize and judge the adequacy of the evidence about benefits and harms: convincing, adequate, inadequate (TF topic subgroup).

http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf07/methods/benefit.htm

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