Medical Director, Mercy Care Plan, Phoenix, Ariz campos-outcaltd@mercycareplan.org
In 2016, the author was appointed to a 4-year term as a member of the Community Preventive Services Task Force. From 2006 to 2014, he served as liaison from the American Academy of Family Physicians to the US Preventive Services Task Force. He was also a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from 2011 to 2015.
Public health interventions are often politically charged, and the CPSTF at times makes recommendations that, while supported by evidence, raise objections from certain groups. One example is a recommendation for “comprehensive risk reduction interventions to promote behaviors that prevent or reduce the risk of pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).”5 These interventions may include a hierarchy of recommended behaviors that identifies abstinence as the best or preferred method, but also provides information about sexual risk reduction strategies. Abstinence-only education initiatives were rated as having insufficient evidence for effectiveness.6
The CPSTF publishes accounts of how organizations have applied its recommendations to dramatically improve patient outcomes.
Another example that falls in the controversial realm is a recommendation against “policies facilitating the transfer of juveniles from juvenile to adult criminal justice systems for the purpose of reducing violence, based on strong evidence that these laws and policies are associated with increased subsequent violent behavior among transferred youth.”7
