PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Dr. Michael Silverstein, director of the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University and a professor at Brown’s School of Public Health, has been appointed chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
The task force is an independent panel of experts that works to improve the health of people nationwide by making evidence-based recommendations about preventive medical services. As chair, Silverstein will lead the group in making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services and medications. He will serve as a spokesperson and ambassador to the public, health care providers and other key stakeholders.
Silverstein, a professor of health services, policy and practice who studies mental health services for children and families, is one of the nation’s leading pediatric health services researchers. He has been a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force since 2016 and was appointed vice chair in 2023. He is particularly interested in the hazards posed by the “medicalization” of social phenomena, and the benefits and limitations of the health care system's ability to deal with health-related social needs.
Silverstein’s chair appointment was announced on Wednesday, March 12.
“The task force is dedicated to using evidence to improve the health of Americans and to addressing critical issues of health equity,” Silverstein said upon his appointment as vice chair in 2023. “I'm excited to help steer the task force's work in a way that maximizes its positive impact.”
Since 2021, Silverstein has served as director of Brown’s Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, where researchers investigate ways to eliminate health inequities in pregnancy and childhood for Rhode Island families, focusing on family mental health and related community-level drivers such as food insecurity and community violence.
Silverstein’s primary research interest is the prevention of depression among mothers experiencing social disadvantage and caregivers of vulnerable children. He has conducted research to determine optimal systems of care for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who live in urban areas, treatment pathways for screen-detected parents with depression, and systems to address food insecurity.
Prior to joining Brown University in 2021, Silverstein was an associate professor of pediatrics, director of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics, and vice chair of research for the Department of Pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine. He also worked as a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center.