In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said women don’t need to get annual mammograms until they turn 50 (used to be 40). Also, they said, if you make it to 75, you don’t need to get them any more. Everyone freaked out.
In 2011, the group made a similar recommendation about screening for prostate cancer (less treatment is more), and got similar reactions.
Now the USPSTF says whether you are playing on your high school soccer team or signing up for Social Security, you need an AIDS test.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
With the two cancer screening recommendations, people were upset that access to preventive care was being limited. Now, I’m guessing the reaction will be the opposite. Instead of being angry about “losing” access to care, people will be angry about wider access to a screening for an illness that is often sexually transmitted.
“What? AIDS test? What kind of person do you think I am?” Just like access to birth control makes you a slut, routine AIDS screenings must have the same effect, if you follow that line of thinking (I don’t). Can’t you hear Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh saying how this is a worthless idea and will just make healthcare even more expensive? They won’t have read the part about how people who are treated earlier for HIV infections fared better than those who started treatment later.
Ob-Gyns have been screening pregnant women for AIDS for more than 10 years. It’s voluntary, but strongly recommended. I was tested at the start of both my pregnancies. I did protest mildly the second time (“My husband and I are too exhausted to step out on each other!”) but the nurse was firm and I got the test.
The funny thing is that at the same practice, the mammogram advice had not taken hold. I had my baseline at 37 and this year my doc recommended another scan. I mentioned the USPSTF advice (start at 50 unless you have a family history) and she launched into a vigorous argument against it. It was personal: Her mother had just had a bilateral mastectomy and her sister had a lumpectomy. “And we have no family history!” The final insult of the whole exchange was that she didn’t even have my baseline (several years ago, different doctor, no EMR), so she wouldn’t even be sure if anything had changed.
One complaint about the USPSTF is that there aren’t enough specialists on it. The panel has 16 volunteer members, most of whom are clinicians in primary care or preventive medicine. Check out their credentials here. People serve four-year terms and you can nominate people to serve on the board. Would we all feel better about the panel’s recommendations if doctors who owned mammogram machines were saying women should get more mammograms more often? Probably depends on how your medical mind works.
