January 27, 2016
Michael Pignone, MD, MPH, professor and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine in the UNC School of Medicine, is featured prominently in a communication effort launched this week by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Dr. Pignone is a member of the Task Force and one of the authors of a recommendation, released on January 26, that clinicians should screen the general adult population, including pregnant and postpartum women, for depression.
To get the word out about the recommendation, the Task Force issued a press release that quotes Dr. Pignone:
“Depression is a serious condition that is common among patients seen in primary care. The Task Force recommends that primary care clinicians screen adult patients for depression,” says Task Force member Michael P. Pignone, M.D., M.P.H.
In addition, the Task Force published its recommendation in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which produced two videos and an audio podcast in which Dr. Pignone discusses the recommendation.
The recommendation has received significant media coverage, including this story in The New York Times, which quotes both Dr. Pignone and UNC’s Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, who is director of the UNC Perinatal Psychiatry Program and an expert on postpartum depression.