The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is an independent panel of experts that makes evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling, and preventive medications. The USPSTF publishes insufficient evidence (I) statements when it is not possible to make a recommendation about the benefits or harms of a service because the scientific evidence is lacking, of poor quality, or conflicting. I statements represent research gaps that need expanded effort and investment.
NIH’s long-standing partnership with the USPSTF has been instrumental in strengthening the evidence base for preventive services, generating new evidence that has helped change I statements to graded recommendations (PDF) for or against the preventive service.
Each year, ODP conducts the I Statement Reporting Survey to collect information about current NIH activities that address research needs and gaps in USPSTF I statements. Researchers can use the survey results to review NIH activities related to addressing the I statements and identify opportunities for investigator-initiated activities.
Highlights From the 2023 I Statement Reporting Survey
About the Survey
Survey methods
The web-based survey asks participating NIH institutes, centers, and offices (ICOs) to submit information about grants, publications, and other activities (such as conferences and funding announcements) that directly addresses the research gaps outlined in a list of I statements that are relevant to each ICO’s mission. To reduce the response burden while still obtaining complete and accurate information, ODP collects information about half of the total list of I statements each year on an alternating schedule.
ODP reviews responses for accuracy and completeness and compiles summary reports.
How we use the results
ODP leads collaboration and communication between NIH and the USPSTF. We use the information gathered in this annual survey to:
- Work with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the USPSTF, NIH ICOs, and others to understand where new evidence is emerging and ongoing gaps remain by maintaining an electronic database of reported activities
- Inform the USPSTF’s annual topic prioritization efforts and annual report to Congress of critical research gaps in clinical preventive services and ways they are being addressed
- Facilitate and coordinate NIH-wide efforts to address and close critical research gaps
- Promote extramural research collaborations and communicate with the broader research
community to encourage new, innovative studies addressing preventive services research
gaps - Inform and complement other ODP initiatives aimed at facilitating collaborative research
projects across and beyond NIH, such as the Prevention Research Coordinating Committee and Scientific Interest Groups
- Identify opportunities for coordinating research activities that may be relevant to addressing research gaps identified by the separate but related Community Preventive Services Task Force