Preventive care in the emergency department, part I: Clinical preventive services - Are they relevant to emergency medicine?

In 1998 the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine's (SAEM's) Board of Dir ectors asked the SAEM Public Health and Education Task Force to develop rec ommendations for prevention, screening, and counseling activities to be con ducted in emergency departments (EDs). The Task Force's work was divided in to two phases: 1) a discussion of the rationale for preventive services in the ED, along with generation of a preliminary list of prevention activitie s that could be studied for ED implementation; and 2) a formal evidence-bas ed review of topics chosen from the preliminary list, along with recommenda tions for ED implementation and further study. This paper represents Phase I of the project. Phase II, the formal evidence-based review and recommenda tions, is published separately in this issue.