UT Health San Antonio physician to advise nationally on preventive care
Carlos Roberto Jaén, MD, PhD, professor and chairman of family and community medicine at UT Health San Antonio, has been appointed to serve on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
The goal of the task force is to improve the health of people nationwide by developing evidence-based recommendations for prevention services, such as screenings, counseling interventions and medications.
Dr. Jaén’s four-year service on the task force will lend a San Antonio and South Texas perspective to clinical care nationwide by proposing recommendations that include the challenges South Texans face in accessing preventive clinical care.
The task force issues recommendations for clinical services based on letter grades, with A being the strongest recommendation in favor of a service (such as colonoscopy or mammography) and D having the strongest recommendation against it.
“The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is probably one of the most consequential committees in the United States because, by virtue of the Accountable Care Act, anything that the task force determines to be A or B evidence for a recommendation must be covered by an insurance plan without charge to the patient,” Dr. Jaén said. “Decisions made by this task force affect everyone in our nation.”