Personal Wellness Should Include Routine Health Screenings

Tara Rakowski, M.D., Family Practice, Columbia St. Mary’s

Posted: Nov. 1, 2006

A key to maintaining good health is a proper diet and regular exercise, however, it is just as important to visit your family doctor regularly and have preventive screenings performed as necessary.

Many people are fairly acquainted with the standard screenings used today for routine exams such as mammograms and prostate and colon cancer screenings. What most people do not realize is that the guidelines are just that – guidelines. Knowing your family history of certain diseases, your work history and your own personal risk level for developing a disease are huge factors in tailoring a preventive wellness plan. That’s why the patient-doctor relationship is so vital – even for healthy patients.

For people who choose to make regular, physician exams and screenings a part of their health care, the benefits include improved education on how to stay healthy and live longer, as well as peace of mind about your body.

People who don’t get screened regularly, especially those at an elevated risk of certain diseases, really miss an opportunity to improve their health and change the proliferation and severity of any disease that may be present but undetected.

All of the screenings listed below, along with many others, will be available at our new Columbia St. Mary’s Prospect Medical Commons. And, I believe, people who have their tests done with us will have a distinct advantage. Because of the all-digital capabilities at the new clinic, the test results doctors receive are more quickly available, easier to read and more detailed. This allows us to provide an even higher quality of care for our patients.

In addition to the screenings we provide, regular self-exams of body parts such as breasts and skin are important to preventing illness.

So often patients procrastinate undergoing a health screening due to fear of hearing bad news or due to confusion of what tests are covered by their insurance plans. I urge everyone not to let fear, uncertainty or any other reason stop them from being as healthy as possible. In the long run, talking openly with your doctor about your concerns is always your best option.

The example of guidelines below, which is not an exhaustive list, are set by national and international institutions such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Canadian Task Force for Preventive Care and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The recommended ages and frequency for screenings are set when agencies like these thoroughly examine medical data, including disease impact, average onset age of a disease and treatment outcomes studies.

Because technology is always evolving and disease trends fluctuate, these guidelines change every one to two years. That’s why it’s so critical that your doctor know you, know your lifestyle and know your background in order to tailor a health care plan.

Interestingly, when we look at the screening guidelines that are in place and why they are there, the answer can actually have a global impact on health. Scientists at many national and worldwide institutions (such as those mentioned above) and medical colleges use screenings as a way to truly make a difference in medicine.

In the medical community, we often ask ourselves, “If I perform this test, will I be able to impact the long-term outcome of this disease?” The truth is, by implementing screening guidelines to the best of our abilities, we are working to screen people for the most prevalent diseases in order to lower the severity of each disease and to help save as many lives as possible.

Common Screening Guidelines:

Tara Rakowski, M.D.
Family Practice
Columbia St. Mary’s
414-326-1745

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