The future of preconception care: A Clinical Perspective
Received 22 July 2008; received in revised form 15 September 2008; accepted 20 September 2008.
The concepts of preconception care (PCC) have been discussed for over 20 years and the standards for PCC have been recently promulgated by the clinical committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Select Panel of Preconception Care. For PCC to be fully realized, however, changes must be made in clinical practice, public health supports, and health coverage. This article discusses 1) the clinical content and delivery of PCC, 2) barriers to why this care does not fit easily into the current clinical paradigm for providing medical care, and 3) how new information technologies within the concept of the medical home might be a promising new way to assist in the diffusion of these concepts.
aDepartment of Family Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
bNational Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
cCollege of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
dDepartment of Pediatrics, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire
Correspondence to: Brian W. Jack, MD, Boston Medical Center, Dowling 5, Room 5309, 1 BMC Place, Boston, MA 02118; Phone: 617-414-5956; Fax: 617-414-3345.
The authors have no direct financial interests that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted manuscript.
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ABSTRACT