Electronic Population Health Tools Enhance Preventive Care for Older Adults

Abstract

By 2030, those ages 45 and older will constitute 43% of Americans, vastly outnumbering those 18 and younger.1 Older individuals are at particularly high risk for solid malignancy and vaccine preventable illness. As such, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published guidelines to maximize their well-being. Unfortunately, uptake of these recommendations is suboptimal and health disparities exist. For example, California currently has a lung cancer screening rate of 1% of eligible adults (national average is 5%), which ranks 49th of 50 states.