Today’s POV blog

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services. In layman’s terms, this group reviews and gives advice to you and me about health services and healthy living.

The USPSTF makes recommendations on all sorts of topics — everything from alcohol misuse to cancer, from heart disease to Alzheimer’s, and from exercise to STDs. Last month, the USPSTF announced that the organization no longer recommends that women begin mammogram screening at 40, but rather that they delay until the age of 50.

As benign as this may seem at first blush, Republicans, such as Rep. Marsha Blackburn, are leveling accusations and intimating that this “medical rationing.” The concern is that this type of rationing will be commonplace under the new healthcare reform.

In support of the USPSTF’s recommendations and according to GlobalHealingCenter.org, while mammograms do help detect some breast abnormalities, they might actually be increasing the occurrence of breast cancer. Recent research has shown that repeated exposure to mammograms may act as an independent risk factor for breast cancer.

At the center of this concern is the amount of radiation to which the patient is exposed during her annual mammogram. A typical x-ray exposes the patient to 1 rad and each rad is believed to increase the breast-cancer risk by 1%. By starting annual mammograms at 40, the patient is exposed to an addition 10% risk.

In a story reported by Time, the USPSTF is surprised at all the political hoopla. According to member Dr. Diana Petitti, an Arizona State University professor and vice chair of the task force, “Our attempt to communicate [the risks and benefits of] routine screening was definitely lost.”