The Nation - News from May 3, 1989

A government task force recommended that physicians spend more time counseling patients on healthy living and less time doing routine screening tests. The task force, which reviewed more than 2,400 scientific studies, also concluded that some tests are ineffective as routine screening tools and should be used only on patients with symptoms or at high risk for the disease. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a 20-member panel of health-care experts appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services in 1984, compiled a nearly 300-page report on the effectiveness of more than 100 screening procedures.