RT Book, Section
A1 Armstrong, Katrina A.
A1 Martin, Gary J.
A2 Jameson, J. Larry
A2 Fauci, Anthony S.
A2 Kasper, Dennis L.
A2 Hauser, Stephen L.
A2 Longo, Dan L.
A2 Loscalzo, Joseph
SR Print(0)
ID 1155940831
T1 Screening and Prevention of Disease
T2 Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 20e
YR 2018
FD 2018
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259644016
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1155940831
RD 2024/04/23
AB A  primary  goal  of  health  care  is  to  prevent  disease  or  detect  it  early  enough  that  intervention  will  be  more  effective.  Tremendous  progress  has  been  made  toward  this  goal  over  the  last  50  years.  Screening  tests  are  available  for  many  common  diseases  and  encompass  biochemical  (e.g.,  cholesterol,  glucose),  physiologic  (e.g.,  blood  pressure,  growth  curves),  radiologic  (e.g.,  mammogram,  bone  densitometry),  and  cytologic  (e.g.,  Pap  smear)  approaches.  Effective  preventive  interventions  have  resulted  in  dramatic  declines  in  mortality  from  many  diseases,  particularly  infections.  Preventive  interventions  include  counseling  about  risk  behaviors,  vaccinations,  medications,  and,  in  some  relatively  uncommon  settings,  surgery.  Preventive  services  (including  screening  tests,  preventive  interventions,  and  counseling)  are  different  than  other  medical  interventions  because  they  are  proactively  administered  to  healthy  individuals  instead  of  in  response  to  a  symptom,  sign,  or  diagnosis.  Thus,  the  decision  to  recommend  a  screening  test  or  preventive  intervention  requires  a  particularly  high  bar  of  evidence  that  testing  and  intervention  are  both  practical  and  effective.