AHRQ Offers You, Your Patients Tools to Promote Health

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, is making it easier for you to safeguard your patients' health. New resources -- for you and your patients -- are available for downloading from the AHRQ Web site. You also can order a hard copy version of a widely used clinical resource from the agency.

Thanks to a collaboration between AHRQ and the United Health Foundation, more than 400,000 physicians across the country will receive, for the first time, a complete printed version of the 2006 edition of the agency's signature publication, Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, free of charge. The Guide includes recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, or USPSTF, on a variety of screening, counseling and preventive medication topics and offers clinical considerations for each topic.

The 2006 Guide includes recommendations made or revised between 2001 and 2005. The 50-plus recommendations, which cover topics ranging from newborn hearing screening to screening for lipid disorders in adults, are organized to facilitate quick reference and allow easy searching. More recent USPSTF recommendations may be accessed online.

Single copies of the Guide may be ordered from the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse by phone at (800) 358-9295 or by e-mail (ask for The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2006 [AHRQ Publication No. 06-0588]). Single copies also may be ordered online.

On March 22, AHRQ announced the release of two new checklists designed to help patients -- both men and women -- keep track of the various screening tests they should be receiving to stay healthy at any age.

The checklists -- "Men: Stay Healthy at Any Age, Your Checklist for Health" and "Women: Stay Healthy at Any Age, Your Checklist for Health" -- are available in a reader-friendly online format. Available in English or Spanish, they also may be downloaded as PDF files.

Patients can carry these pocket-sized brochures with them to health care visits as a handy resource and springboard for discussion about which screening tests they may need. In addition to specific screening recommendations, the checklists include more general information about the role screening plays in promoting and maintaining health. Also included are basic tips for staying healthy, such as not using tobacco, drinking alcohol in moderation and being physically active.