Screening for Health-Related Social Needs: American College of Preventive Medicine's Practice Statement.

Interest is rapidly growing around screening for health-related social needs (HRSN) in direct patient care settings. The screening and provision of HRSN is often done in the context of trying to address social determinants of health (SDOH). While there is emerging evidence that screening and referral for HRSN can improve health outcomes, there are educational, operational, and systemic gaps that need to be filled in order for HRSN screening and referral to be implemented system-wide and result in meaningful improvement in population health outcomes.

Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Prevention Among Youth: A Community Guide Systematic Review.

Introduction: Intimate partner violence and sexual violence are widespread and often occur early in life. This systematic review examines the effectiveness of interventions for primary prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence among youth.

Methods: Studies were identified from 2 previous systematic reviews and an updated search (January 2012-June 2016).

Ethics of Implementing US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations for Childhood Obesity.

Childhood obesity represents a serious and growing concern for the United States. Its negative consequences for health and well-being can be far-reaching, devastating, and intergenerational. In 2017, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a grade B recommendation for screening children and adolescents for obesity and offering or referring to comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions as indicated.

US Ventilator Allocation and Patient Triage Policies in Anticipation of the COVID-19 Surge.

Before the predicted March 2020 surge of COVID-19, US healthcare organizations were charged with developing resource allocation policies. We assessed policy preparedness and substantive triage criteria within existing policies using a cross-sectional survey distributed to public health personnel and healthcare providers between March 23 and April 23, 2020. Personnel and providers from 68 organizations from 34 US states responded.

Characteristics of Population Health Physicians and the Needs of Healthcare Organizations.

Introduction: Healthcare organizations are transitioning from fee-for-service, volume-based care toward value-based care and the Triple Aim. Physicians have critical roles as leaders and practitioners in this emerging field of population health management; however, the competencies required of these physicians are not well described. The purpose of this study is to explore the approaches of healthcare systems to population health-related functions, the competencies needed, and the characteristics of physicians who lead or staff these functions.

American College of Preventive Medicine Statement on Prioritizing Prevention in Opioid Research.

Research is the foundation of evidence-based health care that motivates innovations in clinical interventions and public health. Prior and current research on opioid use has focused mainly on individual patient-physician relationships, opioid use disorder and treatment, and overdose responses. This article recommends 3 priorities for future research and investigates why, from clinical and ethical standpoints, future research should be directed toward building the capacity and increasing the effectiveness of population-based programs and improving prevention strategies.

Induced Abortion and the Increased Risk of Maternal Mortality.

Unlabelled: After years of failure to obtain accurate statistics on maternal mortality, the United States noted a sharp increase in its maternal mortality rate with widening racial and ethnic disparities. The 2016 report shocked the nation by documenting a 26 percent increase in maternal mortality from 18.8/100,000 live births in 2000 to 23.

Credentialing and privileging the preventive medicine physician.

The practice of preventive medicine remains ill-defined, and the specialty is threatened by a void in the definition of the specialty's practice. The authors propose a cohesive, active identification of skills provided by trained preventive medicine physicians through the credentialing and privileging process. The privileging process should incorporate clinical skills specific to the provider and non-clinical skills based on preventive medicine residency training competency requirements, preventive medicine board certification examination requirements, and the ten essential public health services.

Preventive Medicine: A hidden asset for building a dominant culture of prevention.

We explore three issues related to the practice of preventive medicine. First, how does the dearth of preventive medicine physicians on state licensure boards affect quality of medical care? Second, should a process be established to assess the training and skills of candidates for population health positions, like the "credentialing" or "privilege-granting" process used by hospitals and health systems for clinical positions? And third, how should the pervasive lack of recognition of preventive medicine as a bona fide medical specialty be addressed? In exploring these issues, we conclude that preventive medicine physicians are critical to the US health care ecosystem at every level, and to building a dominant culture of prevention. Preventive medicine physicians are actively engaged in the practice of medicine and should be party to the same licensure, credentialing, and privilege-granting procedures as all other specialties.

Do preventive medicine physicians practice medicine?

As some preventive medicine physicians have been denied medical licenses for not engaging in direct patient care, this paper attempts to answer the question, "Do preventive medicine physicians practice medicine?" by exploring the requirements of licensure, the definition of "practice" in the context of modern medicine, and by comparing the specialty of preventive medicine to other specialties which should invite similar scrutiny. The authors could find no explicit licensure requirement for either a certain amount of time in patient care or a number of patients seen. No physicians board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine sit on any state medical boards.

Persons Who Failed to Obtain Colorectal Cancer Screening Despite Participation in an Evidence-Based Intervention.

In a previous report, we demonstrated the efficacy of an educational intervention focused on increasing colorectal cancer screening rates among African Americans. Despite participating in the intervention, however, nearly two-thirds of participants did not seek and receive screening. Participants were African-Americans over age 49 (N = 257) who had not been screened for colorectal cancer according to guidelines.

Integrative Medicine in Preventive Medicine Education: Implementation Analysis.

In September 2012, the Health Resources and Services Administration funded 12 preventive medicine residency programs to participate in a 2-year project aimed at incorporating integrative medicine (IM) into their residency training programs. The grantees were asked to incorporate competencies for IM into their respective preventive medicine residency curricula and to provide for faculty development in IM. The analysis conducted in 2014-2015 used the following evidence to assess residency programs' achievements and challenges in implementation: progress and performance measures reports, curriculum mapping of program activities to IM competencies, records of webinar participation, and post-project individual semi-structured phone interviews with the 12 grantee project leaders.

Integrative Medicine in Preventive Medicine Education: Competency and Curriculum Development for Preventive Medicine and Other Specialty Residency Programs.

During 2012, the USDHHS's Health Resources and Services Administration funded 12 accredited preventive medicine residencies to incorporate an evidence-based integrative medicine curriculum into their training programs. It also funded a national coordinating center at the American College of Preventive Medicine, known as the Integrative Medicine in Preventive Medicine Education (IMPriME) Center, to provide technical assistance to the 12 grantees. To help with this task, the IMPriME Center established a multidisciplinary steering committee, versed in integrative medicine, whose primary aim was to develop integrative medicine core competencies for incorporation into preventive medicine graduate medical education training.

Guidance to employers on integrating e-cigarettes/electronic nicotine delivery systems into tobacco worksite policy.

In recent years, new products have entered the marketplace that complicate decisions about tobacco control policies and prevention in the workplace. These products, called electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or electronic nicotine delivery systems, most often deliver nicotine as an aerosol for inhalation, without combustion of tobacco. This new mode of nicotine delivery raises several questions about the safety of the product for the user, the effects of secondhand exposure, how the public use of these products should be handled within tobacco-free and smoke-free air policies, and how their use affects tobacco cessation programs, wellness incentives, and other initiatives to prevent and control tobacco use.

Preventing texting while driving: a statement of the American College of Preventive Medicine.

The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) is providing a set of recommendations designed to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with distractions due to texting while driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 12% of all fatal crashes involving at least one distracted driver are estimated to be related to cell phone use while driving. Given the combination of visual, manual, and cognitive distractions posed by texting, this is an issue of major public health concern for communities.

Advancing aspirin utilization: a review of clinical and systems-based interventions.

Underuse of clinical preventive services (CPS) such as low-dose aspirin therapy leads to tens of thousands of preventable deaths per year. The authors examined the current literature related to delivery of CPS and then provided the results to a preventive medicine expert panel who identified best practices to improve aspirin counseling and use. An exploratory literature search was conducted in PubMed using keywords associated with preventive health interventions.