Posts by w1q6o

Guidelines in medicine can be very powerful. They consolidate vast amounts of knowledge – the magnitude of which may be difficult if not impossible for an individual physician to do – into concise recommendations. The process requires input from many experts, including those who understand the subject of interest; individuals with a knowledge of health-care…

Ontario is lowering the age for regular, publicly funded breast-cancer screenings to 40 from 50, mirroring a similar recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force last May. Now, the attention turns toward the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. Will it follow the U.S. recommendations, as it has in the past? The ongoing…

The last guideline on prostate-cancer screening was published in 2014. At the time, the task force approached the Canadian Urologic Association (CUA) and asked that it provide an expert panel of “stakeholders” to provide input. I was asked to lead this panel. I assembled a group of five knowledgeable individuals. The draft of the guideline…