TRENDS
Preventive Care Guidelines: Too Much of a Good Thing? Researchers suggest it might be time for some ‘de-intensification’ Editor’s note: The following is fourth in a series about changes occurring among primary care physicians.
Does anybody actually oppose the concept of preventive medicine for kids and adults? Ask yourself: How many
people do you know who believe that regular blood pressure checks at the pediatrician’s office or annual well-woman visits are bad?
Yet in a research report and accompanying editorial in JAMA Internal Medicine this fall, clinicians from the University of Michigan and elsewhere raised a red flag: They ask, Have we reached a point where providers have too many guidelines to keep track of, including those pertaining to preventive care? When professional societies or governmental agencies add recommendations to their guidelines, do they remove others of lesser value? Is it time to “de-intensify” preventive care guidelines? 26
February 2021
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“Much of health care involves established, routine, or continuing use of medical services for chronic conditions or prevention,” write the authors of “Identifying Recommendations for Stopping or Scaling Back Unnecessary Routine Services in Primary Care.” “Stopping some of these services when the benefits no longer outweigh the risks (e.g., owing to older age or worsening health) or when there is a change in the evidence that had previously supported ongoing treatment and monitoring, presents
