Screening Guidelines in Clinical Practice

[LHerman]

A group of us were chatting about the increasing variability in specific screening guideline recommendations for disease states. As an example, with its epidemiological and population-based focus, the USPSTF tends to be more conservative, while other organizations like the American Cancer Society tend to be more aggressive in their screening recommendations. After we chatted about the various organizational motivations, we then asked each other the obvious question: How do you decide which screening guideline to implement? Next we pondered what determines the choices by a PA or an NP. Is it the most aggressive or the most conservative? Is it the most cost-efficient? Is it uniformly the same organization each time or is it different in each instance, and why? How do you decide?