Al Berg named to lead U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

Al Berg

Dr. Alfred O. Berg, professor and acting chair of the School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine, has been appointed chair of the reconvened U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Dr. John M. Eisenberg, administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, made the public announcement Sept. 17 in Washington, D.C., to coincide with Surgeon General David Satcher’s announcement before the American Academy of Family Physicians at its annual meeting in San Francisco.

The task force is an independent panel of 15 health experts who evaluate clinical preventive services, such as screening, immunizations and counseling for health behavior change. The panel produces reports and recommendations on preventive services proven to work in primary-care settings.

Berg said that the group’s first meeting is planned for November, and that decisions about what topics to consider first will be on the agenda. The task force appointments will extend through 2002, when the group will complete the third full edition of the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services.

In contrast to earlier task forces, Berg said that this group plans to release recommendations on the effectiveness of specific services as those reports are ready, rather than waiting until the full guide is completed. Recommendations will be available electronically, as well as in print.

The newly appointed group will be looking at some fresh topics, as well as evaluating new evidence that bears on earlier recommendations, Berg said.

Task force members represent the fields of behavioral medicine, family medicine, geriatrics, internal medicine, nursing, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and preventive medicine. The U.S. Public Health Service convened the first task force in 1984.

“Large provider groups and insurance companies have adopted task force recommendations because it is an independent panel without an ax to grind; it focuses exclusively on the scientific evidence,” Berg said. On the other hand, the panel doesn’t have any legal authority to force anyone to adopt its recommendations.

Berg, also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, served on the second task force from 1990 to 1995. ¶

Claire Dietz