Leading physicians and medical researchers from across the U.S. urge RFK Jr. to modernize the USPSTF, calling for proactive, science-driven prevention, early disease detection, and innovative leadership to reduce preventable illness, premature death, health inequity, and unsustainable healthcare costs nationwide.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A coalition of leading physicians, scientists, and public health experts from across the United States has issued an open letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging immediate action to modernize the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and realign national prevention policy with contemporary science, technology, and clinical realities.
Signed by more than 45 nationally and internationally recognized leaders in cardiology, radiology, oncology, epidemiology, and preventive medicine, the letter calls for a fundamental shift in how preventive healthcare recommendations are developed and implemented. The authors emphasize that the USPSTF's current evidence framework is overly retrospective, slow to adapt, and poorly suited to an era of advanced imaging, artificial intelligence, and precision diagnostics.
"Prevention should not wait for catastrophe," the signatories write. "Yet under current paradigms, millions of Americans remain undiagnosed until they present with advanced, life-threatening disease. This approach is no longer defensible in the presence of modern tools that can detect disease early, accurately, and at scale."
The letter identifies cardiovascular disease as the clearest example of this systemic failure. Despite being the leading cause of death in the United States for nearly a century, the USPSTF offers no recommendation for early detection of asymptomatic cardiovascular disease. As a result, most Americans with advanced but silent atherosclerosis remain unidentified until they suffer heart attack, stroke, heart failure, or sudden death.
The coalition highlights decades of scientific evidence demonstrating that early detection and preventive intervention dramatically improve outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and extend healthspan. Yet the USPSTF continues to prioritize narrow randomized clinical trial paradigms over converging evidence from real-world data, advanced imaging, biomarkers, and AI-enabled diagnostics that now define modern preventive medicine.
Beyond clinical outcomes, the letter underscores the profound equity implications of outdated prevention policy. Communities with fewer resources are disproportionately harmed when preventive services are not endorsed, as they are least able to access care outside USPSTF-approved pathways. The signatories stress that modernizing prevention is both a medical and moral imperative.
The authors call on Secretary Kennedy to appoint forward-looking experts to the USPSTF with demonstrated leadership in early disease detection, translational science, population health implementation, and digital innovation. They urge the administration to transform the Task Force into a proactive engine for disease prevention rather than a passive evaluator of historical evidence.
"America has led the world in biomedical innovation," the letter concludes. "It is time for our national prevention policy to reflect that leadership. By modernizing the USPSTF, we can prevent millions of avoidable deaths, reduce healthcare inequity, and fundamentally reshape the future of public health."
Please visit www.vp.org to read "Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Regarding the Urgent Need to Modernize the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force"
Media Contact
JoAnne Zawitoski, JD, Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE), 1 6504488089, [email protected], www.shapesociety.org
SOURCE Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE)
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