USPSTF adds two members, seeks nominees for national board

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Two primary care physicians have begun their terms this year serving on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).

Meanwhile, there still is time to nominate primary care experts to serve on the task force that makes evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services and health.

March 15 is the deadline to nominate potential members for four-year terms advising the USPSTF, starting in January 2026. Volunteer members are appointed by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The next nominees to join the board would be the first appointed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has stated his goal to work with the administration to Make America Healthy Again. Kennedy has pledged “to investigate and address the root causes of America’s escalating health crisis, with a focus on childhood chronic disease.” While remaining independent, USPSTF issues recommendations on childhood health issues and works closely with the U.S. Agency Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the divisions in HHS.

USPSTF meets three times a year for two days in the Washington, D.C., area. Membership duties can take up to 250 hours a year outside of the in-person meetings, with duties ranging from prioritizing topics to designing research plans and reviewing evidence for recommendations on preventive services.

Doctors may nominate themselves, and strongest consideration is given to experts in internal medicine, family medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology. USPSTF’s official website notes nominees must be national leaders in at least three areas:

• The critical evaluation of research published in peer reviewed literature and in the methods of evidence review.
• Clinical prevention, health promotion, and primary health care.
• Implementation of evidence-based recommendations in clinical practice, including at the clinician-patient level, practice level, and health system level.

More information is here and the online portal is the preferred method for nominations.

New members

Alicia Fernandez, MD, and Ericka Gibson, MD, MPH, this year joined USPSTF.

Alicia Fernandez, MD
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Fernandez, a general internist, is a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). There she is associate dean of population health and health equity, and director of the UCSF Latinx Center of Excellence. She practices primary care and hospital medicine at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

“Dr. Fernandez’s research interests are in healthcare equity with a focus on the role of language, literacy, and cultural barriers in cardiometabolic disease care outcomes, patient experience, and patient-clinician trust,” according to her official biography. “Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Russell Sage Foundation, and The Greenwall Foundation. She is an editor of the Lange textbook, Medical Management of Vulnerable and Underserved Patients.”

Currently she is a member of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute board of governors and the American Board of Internal Medicine board of directors. She has held positions in the study sections of NIH and the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and on advisory or focused committees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Academy of Medicine, where she is an elected member, and other national groups. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her residency, chief residency and fellowship at UCSF, according to her official biography.

Ericka Gibson, MD, MPH
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Ericka Gibson, MD, MPH, is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Southeast Permanente Medical Group at Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta, Georgia. There she directs perinatal safety and quality and leads the perinatal patient safety team. She is co-creator of the Cocoon Pregnancy Care Model, an integrative, multidisciplinary program designed to optimize maternal outcomes and reduce health disparities. It is based on analysis of maternal health, postpartum care, remote patient monitoring for hypertension and diabetes, social determinants of health, and health equity.

“As a member of the Kaiser Permanente National Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC), Dr. Gibson has worked to establish ways to embed equity by advocating for the collection of race-stratified data and incorporating the use of discrimination evaluation tools in case reviews,” according to her official biography. “She leads the Kaiser Georgia MMRC, whose primary goal is to identify interventions across multiple levels (patient, provider, healthcare system, and community) that could prevent future maternal mortality. Recommendations from the MMRC have culminated in key maternal health initiatives, such as dedicated perinatal mental health support and systemwide changes to improve access to care.”

Gibson earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College and her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and master’s degree in public health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Additional members

The other USPSTF members are: Chair Wanda K. Nicholson, MD, MPH, MBA; Michael Silverstein, MD, MPH; John B. Wong, MD, MACP; David Chelmow, MD; Tumaini Rucker Coker, MD, MBA; Carols Roberto Jaen, MD, PhD, MS, FAAFP; Marie (Tonette) Krousel-Wood, MD, MSPH; Sei Lee, MD, MAS; Goutham Rao, MD, FAHA; John M. Ruiz, PhD; James Stevermer, MD, MSPH; Joel Tsevat, MD, MPH; Sandra Millon Underwood, RN, PhD; and Sarah Wiehe, MD.