March 2014
This week, the American Thoracic Society submitted comments to the U.S. Preventative Services Taskforce (USPSTF) regarding their draft research plan to evaluate the available evidence on effectiveness of COPD screening in asymptomatic populations.
Currently, USPSTF gives COPD screening a D recommendation, meaning the taskforce recommends against the service and advises that there is moderate or high certainty that the service has no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits. The USPSTF recommendation was made in 2008.
As parts of its effort to ensure that their recommendations remain current, USPSTF has developed a draft research plan to review new evidence to see if the current recommendation is still appropriate. In its comment letter, ATS supported USPSTF's efforts to review new evidence and encouraged the timely review of USPSTF recommendations on COPD screening.
