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Please go to www.ahrq.gov for current information.
Internet "surfers" discover the ease of accessing
AHCPR-supported guidelines
Tapping into the Internet is a fast and easy way to access the
clinical practice guidelines released by the Agency for Health
Care Policy and Research. Since the first AHCPR-supported
guidelines were made available online via the Internet in June
1994, there have been about 373,000 instances of direct access to
the text of the guidelines.
Use of the Internet to access AHCPR-supported guidelines has
grown exponentially over the last year in June 1994 there were
less than 1,000 accesses to the guidelines, compared with nearly
98,000 accesses in October 1995, about a 100-fold increase in
monthly use over the 16-month period.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), in collaboration with
AHCPR, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Public
Health Service, launched HSTAT (Health Services/Technology
Assessment Text) in April 1994. This free, electronic service
provides computer access to the full text of clinical practice
guideline products. More than 50 countries now link to the HSTAT
site to browse AHCPR-supported guidelines, quick reference
guides, and consumer guides in both English and Spanish, on 17
common clinical conditions.
Full-Text Retrieval System natural language searching, also
developed by NLM, was recently added to HSTAT to offer users
online word searching capabilities. HSTAT users include
clinicians, health science librarians, and consumers.
AHCPR-supported clinical practice guidelines are in the public
domain within the United States only—except for those
copyrighted materials noted—and may be used and reproduced
without special permission. Electronic user policies are provided
on HSTAT for those who wish to download or reproduce the
guidelines in whole or in part. (For more information, see
Information about copyrighted sections in the Guidelines on
HSTAT.)
The universal resource locator or URL is
http://text.nlm.nih.gov to access HSTAT on the Internet
using a Web browser. Other materials that can be accessed through HSTAT include NIH
clinical research studies, conferences, and workshops; technical
information on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); the Public Health
Service's Guide to Clinical Preventive Services; and the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Center
for Substance Abuse Treatment (SAMHSA/CSAT) treatment improvement
protocol.
Disease prevention experts call for more counseling, better
targeted screening
A task force of prominent preventive health specialists has
recommended that doctors and nurses offer more frequent patient
counseling on personal health and safety habits, significantly
change the use of some screening tests, and add several new
immunizations to their routine practice. The U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force, an independent panel first convened in 1983,
recently issued the first revision of its widely used 1989 guide
to effective disease prevention and health promotion.
Many of the recommended changes in the 1995 Guide to Clinical
Preventive Services, Second Edition, reflect new evidence about
important health benefits of selected preventive services, while
other changes reflect a more critical look at the balance of
harms and benefits of screening tests now in wide use. The report
also reaffirms the validity of many of the practices recommended
in the 1989 report.
The 10-member task force emphasized the need to tailor the
content and frequency of periodic health exams to the age, health
risks, and preferences of each patient. The panel recognized the
proven benefits of specific measures—such as periodic
screening for high blood pressure and cervical cancer, scheduled
vaccinations, and counseling about lifestyle issues, but found
little evidence to support the importance of other routinely used
tests, such as blood tests for diabetes, thyroid diseases, or
anemia; chest x-rays, electrocardiograms, or urine tests.
The task force included specialists in family medicine, internal
medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, and preventive
medicine. They assessed more than 6,000 studies of 200 different
interventions for 70 diseases and conditions.
With the publication of the second edition of the Guide to
Clinical Preventive Services, the operations of the U.S.
Preventive Services Task Force moved to the Agency for Health
Care Policy and Research to join AHCPR's other guideline
activities.
The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, Second Edition, is
available from the Superintendent of Documents (stock number
017-001-00525-8) at a cost of $35.00. Call (202) 512-1800 to
order.
Internet access to the Guide will be available in early 1996 via
the National Library of Medicine's HSTAT database at
http://text.nlm.nih.gov and the Office of Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion at http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov.
Questions about the scientific content of the Guide should be
addressed to Carolyn DiGuiseppi, M.D., M.P.H., or David Atkins,
M.D., M.P.H., at AHCPR's Office of the Forum, (301) 427-1608.
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