Press Release Date: December 12, 1995
Future operations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—an independent advisory panel that today released its second edition of the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services—will move to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research to join the agency's other guideline activities.
The Task Force was first convened by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1984. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion supported the first two editions of the Guide.
"We are very pleased to welcome the highly acclaimed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and its staff to AHCPR," said AHCPR Administrator Clifton R. Gaus, Sc.D. "The work of the Task Force complements and strengthens AHCPR's mission to improve the quality and value of America's health care services."
According to Douglas B. Kamerow, M.D., M.P.H., director of clinical guideline development at AHCPR, "We look forward to expanding our work on preventive care guidelines, and we pledge to continue the tradition of supporting up-to-date, high-quality, evidence-based preventive care guidelines."
AHCPR is mandated by Congress to improve the quality of health care, reduce its cost and broaden access to health care services through health services research and clinical practice guidelines.
The agency thus far has released 17 clinical practice guidelines on topics ranging from the management of heart failure to the detection, diagnosis and treatment of depression. AHCPR is currently preparing several detailed prevention guidelines that will complement and expand some of the recommendations issued today by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Other AHCPR prevention activities include the release in September of interim findings on stroke prevention that could halve the 80,000 strokes suffered each year due to atrial fibrillation; the preparation of materials designed to help HIV-positive pregnant women decide whether to take the drug AZT to reduce the chance of transmitting the virus to their babies; and the funding of investigator-initiated grants on prevention-related research.
For additional information, contact AHCPR Public Affairs: Karen Migdail, (301) 427-1855.
Internet Citation:
Prevention Task Force Moves to AHCPR. Press Release, December 12, 1995. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/prevent.htm