title: Principles of screening.
abstract: Preventive medicine is an increasingly important area of clinical practice. Conceptually, preventive medicine involves three tasks of the clinician: screening, counseling, and immunization/prophylaxis. This opening article reviews some of the basic tenets underlying screening including basic epidemiologic principles, characteristics of a good screening situation, barriers to screening, and some of the potential hazards of screening.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Lang
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011315:Preventive Medicine / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States