The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has changed its top leadership, with new physicians with backgrounds in family medicine, pediatrics, and geriatrics taking over the chair and co-vice chair positions.
The new chair of the task force is Dr. Virginia Moyer, professor of pediatrics and head of academic general pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. Moyer is also chief of the academic medicine service at Texas Children's Hospital.
Moyer replaces Dr. Ned Calonge, the Colorado physician who was chair of the task force when it released its controversial 2009 guidelines on screening mammography. Calonge stepped down as USPSTF chair on Friday.
The USPSTF also named two new co-vice chairs. One is Dr. Albert Siu, an internist, geriatrician, and health services and policy researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Siu is also the director of the geriatric research, education, and clinical center at the Bronx VA Medical Center, and he has served as deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Public Health.
The second co-vice chair is Dr. Michael LeFevre, a professor in family medicine at the University of Missouri. LeFevre also serves as the chief medical information officer for University of Missouri Health Care.
The USPSTF is an independent volunteer panel of 16 private-sector experts in prevention and primary care medicine. It makes recommendations to primary care clinicians about preventive services such as screenings, counseling, or preventive medications.
