Tauhid Mahmud, MD, MPH

Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University

I pursued Preventive Medicine because I believe in the power of upstream interventions to improve population health and address health disparities at their roots. My background in family medicine reinforced my commitment to patient-centered care, but it also highlighted the importance of addressing the social and structural determinants of health. Preventive Medicine allows me to bridge clinical practice, public health, and policy in ways that can create lasting, meaningful change for communities.

I chose the AHRQ for its central role in shaping evidence-based policies that impact healthcare nationwide. During my rotation at AHRQ, I had the opportunity to engage in several meaningful projects aimed at advancing healthcare quality and preventive medicine. A significant part of my work involved contributing to the synthesis and analysis of evidence that informs healthcare decision-making and clinical recommendations. I participated in discussions surrounding methodologies used in preventive health services and collaborated with interdisciplinary teams to evaluate and enhance healthcare quality measures. My responsibilities also included reviewing and interpreting public health data to support evidence-based recommendations, ensuring they were relevant and actionable for both policymakers and clinicians. In addition to these core activities, I attended professional development sessions and agency-wide meetings, which enhanced my understanding of the federal healthcare quality improvement process and the complex interplay between research, policy, and clinical practice.

Megan Harper, MD, PhD, MS

University of Kentucky

Sangeeta R. Iyer, MD, MPH

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health - General Preventive Medicine

As a primary care physician with greater than 10 years of experience in various health systems, I recognized the importance of proactive health care especially at the population health level to shift the needle on managing health risk. Preventive medicine gave me a unique opportunity to combine my experience in clinical medicine with public health principles to address health behavior at a systems level. My decision to select AHRQ was a strategic one to understand how evidence based practice influences health care quality and policy at the federal level. 

During my 8-week rotation at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), I engaged in several impactful projects, gaining invaluable insights into the development and review of evidence-based guidelines that shape clinical practice and policy. Working closely with several medical officers and staff at AHRQ, I assisted in crafting recommendations with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Prior to this rotation, I viewed the USPSTF recommendations as final products without fully appreciating the rigorous analytical framework and systematic evidence review involved. Being part of this process, particularly during the March Taskforce meeting and various Wednesday subcommittee meetings, allowed me to witness firsthand the careful deliberation and communication skills required to develop and relay these guidelines to the public. One significant project I was able to participate in was the review of public comments for a pending recommendation statement which gave me a rare glimpse into how the public shapes guidelines, highlighting gaps in research thus providing critical insights for where funding should go from other federal arms like NIH or HRSA. 

My professional journey will next take me to an addiction medicine fellowship, where the lessons in thoughtful review and communication of evidence based practice will be critical not only in the exam room but also the boardroom as I help develop and implement programs to improve a population health.

Elizabeth Lees, DO

Preventive Medicine and Public Health Fellowship
Mayo Clinic

My experience with AHRQ gave me a new appreciation for the work that goes into making and maintaining national health guidelines, which is not a process well known to most people in healthcare. I spent two months working closely with AHRQ medical officers learning how research is aggregated, appraised, and applied in guideline decision-making. I attended Task Force meetings that allowed me to see recommendation statements in various stages of their development. Most notably, I was given the unique opportunity to work on projects that shape our national guidelines and the future of research funded by Congress.

In public health policy, it can be hard to feel like you are moving the needle. However, this rotation with the Task Force felt like my work had impact. The staff I worked with all took great pride in their work, and that translated to how I felt throughout the rotation. The highlight of my experience was attending the Task Force meeting that convened in person at HHS headquarters in Rockville, MD. It was perhaps best described as experiencing a sense of patriotism- being in a room with distinguished minds from all across America who come together for a common purpose to serve. 

Types of projects I worked on:

• Extracting priority topics for research needs and gaps 
• Fact checking draft recommendation statements
• Drafting sections of recommendation statements
• Composing journal segments related to Task Force recommendation topics
  

The most eye-opening part of the rotation was simply seeing how much work goes into creating a guideline. I have a better idea of what it means to critically appraise research and apply it to a population. I also learned a lot about communications.

Note:

Dr. Lees had a reflection published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in December 2024. Her commentary was titled "Evidence-Based Humanism: A Reflection from the APTR-AHRQ Preventive Medicine Residency Rotation Program"  

Irina Arkhipova-Jenkins, MD MBA

Stony Brook Preventive Medicine Residency

My AHRQ-APTR rotation was great. It allowed a unique opportunity to attend a biannual US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in-person meeting at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) headquarters during which I attended presentations on scientific evidence and experienced USPSTF deliberations on several in-progress recommendations. As a part of the rotation, I also received a robust training on the USPSTF methodology for evaluating the quality of scientific evidence, developing preventive health recommendations, and strategies to address important evidence gaps, particularly in the areas of health equity. I also learned about AHRQ’s ongoing efforts related to the dissemination and implementation of the task force recommendations.

As a AHRQ-APTR resident I was given the opportunity to attend weekly task force progress meetings during which USPSTF members reviewed new evidence and developed draft language for recommendation statements. I also had a chance to take a "deep dive" into the task force’s process for developing recommendations for preventive screening services by working on the project that compared and summarized diagnostic accuracy characteristics of screening tests used in the USPSTF Grade A and B recommendations. In addition, I helped draft a monthly "Putting Prevention into Practice” feature for the American Family Physician journal contextualizing a recently published recommendation from a clinical practice perspective and critically appraised and presented recently published research relevant to the topic of one of the in-progress USPSTF recommendations. This rotation also allowed me a unique chance to continue developing my evidence synthesis skills by assisting with literature review for an in-progress evidence report. 

Aside from the phenomenal educational experiences listed above, participating in this rotation broadened my understanding regarding critical prevention focused population and public health efforts spearheaded by AHRQ, CDC, NIH, and other leading federal agencies and gave me a greater sense of appreciation for evidence-based preventive medicine practice.