Integrating comprehensive adolescent preventive services into routine medicine care - Rationale and approaches

Changes in the causes of adolescent morbidity and mortality necessitate a shift in emphasis toward prevention. Physicians, through the delivery of comprehensive clinical preventive services, can play a major role in improving the health and wellbeing of adolescents. National organizations and federal agencies have released guidelines and have developed materials and training programs to help promote wider use of preventive services. Experience with strategies to implement and evaluate the Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) developed by the American Medical Association is used in this article to outline a series of steps physicians can follow to integrate clinical preventive services into routine medical care.