profession
Online tool aims to make prevention easier
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 2, 2010
Physicians and patients now can electronically check on what preventive services are recommended. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in July unveiled a website widget to enable doctors and others easily to learn about recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent physician expert panel.
The widget can be added to any website by copying a few lines of code. The user enters the patient's age, gender and other details to find out what preventive services, such as HIV or depression screening, are recommended. The results are broken down by strength of evidence and patients at greatest risk. Further details are available with a click.
The results page also shows preventive services that are not recommended or for which the evidence is uncertain or insufficient. The widget is available at the AHRQ website (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/08/02/prbf0802.htm.