Topic
Primary care and prevention
How screening, prevention, and the periodic exam are decided, read through the evidence rather than the ritual.
This page collects every article by Dr. Damon Tojjar in this topic. For all topics see browse by topic, and for the source-anchored record see damontojjar.com/record.
Articles in this topic (16)
- The Evidence Behind HPV Self-Collection for Cervical Cancer Screening
Cervical cancer screening no longer has to begin with a speculum exam. Guideline panels now list a sample the patient collects herself, a simple vaginal swab, as an...
- How ACIP Turns Vaccine Evidence Into a Recommendation
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices does not move straight from a clinical trial to a vote. It runs the evidence through two linked tools: GRADE, which...
- How a Few Minutes of Alcohol Counseling Earned a B Grade, and Why It Stops at Adolescents
The US Preventive Services Task Force gives adults a B grade for screening for unhealthy alcohol use and offering brief behavioral counseling, which means it...
- Why One-Time Aneurysm Screening Targets Older Men Who Ever Smoked
The narrow target is deliberate, not an oversight. The US Preventive Services Task Force gives a grade B to one-time ultrasound screening for abdominal aortic...
- How Quitting Tobacco Became One of the Few Grade A Preventive Services
Quitting tobacco carries a Grade A from the US Preventive Services Task Force, a rating reserved for services where the evidence is close to settled. That letter...
- How the Preventive Services Task Force Stays Independent, and What It Deliberately Leaves Out
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is a panel of 16 unpaid volunteer clinicians and methodologists, appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services but...
- The Evidence Behind Deprescribing and How Screening Tools Flag Risky Medicines
The short answerDeprescribing is the planned, supervised reduction or stopping of medicines that may be causing more harm than benefit, and the evidence for it is...
- What the Trials Actually Show About Intensive Behavioral Weight Loss Programs
The 2018 US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation gives intensive, multicomponent behavioral interventions a grade B for adults with obesity, meaning the...
- What the 2024 Falls Prevention Update Changed, and Why Vitamin D Was Dropped
The short versionOn June 4, 2024, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reissued its recommendation on preventing falls in community-dwelling adults 65 and older,...
- Why Diabetes and Prediabetes Screening Now Starts at Thirty Five
In 2021 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the age to begin screening for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes from 40 to 35 years for adults who...
- Why Hepatitis C Screening Went From a Birth Cohort to Nearly Every Adult
Why hepatitis C screening became a one-time test for nearly every adultIn 2020 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force stopped asking what year you were born and...
- Why HIV Screening Is Recommended Once for Almost Every Adult
Why HIV Screening Is Recommended Once for Almost Every AdultThe U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gives HIV screening its highest mark, a grade A recommendation,...
- Why Pneumococcal Vaccination Now Starts at Fifty
In October 2024, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to recommend a single dose of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) for every adult...
- Why Single Disease Guidelines Break Down in People With Many Conditions
Single disease guidelines break down in multimorbidity because each one is written as if its condition were the only one a person has. Stack a diabetes guideline on...
- Why the RSV Vaccine Advice Moved From Your Choice to Your Age
In 2023, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices told adults 60 and older that they may receive a single RSV vaccine dose through "shared clinical...
- Why the Same Diet and Exercise Counseling Gets Two Different Grades
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gives behavioral counseling on healthy diet and physical activity a B for adults who already carry cardiovascular risk...