The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF or Task Force) is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention, primary care, and evidence-based medicine. This year, the USPSTF celebrates 40 years of making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services that can be delivered or referred from primary care to improve the health of people nationwide. The Task Force assesses the strength of the evidence and the balance of benefits and harms of preventive services in people without signs or symptoms. These services include behavioral counseling, screening tests, and preventive medications.
In 2010, the U.S. Congress charged the Task Force with recommending priority gaps in research that deserve further examination. In some cases, clinical preventive services have been well studied, but there are important evidence gaps that prevent the USPSTF from making recommendations for specific populations. The USPSTF recognizes that disparities persist in healthcare and health outcomes based on age, sex, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, geographical location, and social determinants of health, including economic and social conditions. Filling evidence gaps in healthcare and health outcomes for specific populations is a priority. Identifying these gaps to facilitate greater inclusion of populations disproportionately affected by health conditions in research will help the USPSTF issue recommendations that improve the quality of preventive care. In turn, this will reduce health disparities and increase health equity by leading to improved access to and use of these preventive services. This will help all people across the nation get the preventive care that they need throughout their lifespan.
In this 14th Annual Report to Congress, the Task Force calls for more research in high-priority areas from recent recommendations where evidence is lacking in order to improve the health of all people across the lifespan. These issues are especially important to study in underserved populations and high-risk groups.