This report has two purposes:
First, it provides important information for those drafting objectives at all levels. The report does not relate every statement made in the testimony, but instead highlights major themes, puts the testimony in context, and spells out the implications of this testimony for setting objectives. All of the testimony has been distributed to the groups writing the national objectives, and this report serves as a guide to that material. Groups drafting objectives for states or local areas, or for other organizations, should also find the structure created by this report and the material summarized here useful.
Second, it serves as the record of a unique process in which over 1,000 concerned health professionals and laymen from all regions of the country contributed their knowledge and experience to the building of national objectives for health promotion and disease prevention. Those present at the regional hearings were uniformly impressed with the level of commitment that the participants exhibited to the objectives-setting process and to the activities that the objectives address. To build broader commitment to the Year 2000 Health Objectives, this report recognizes the contributions these individuals made and documents their efforts.
The project was supported by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, Department of Health and Human Services under corporate agreement no. HPV-87-002-03-0.
NOTICE: This volume was prepared as a record of the public hearings and other activities designed to gather and organize information for the United States Public Health Service in formulating national health objectives for the year 2000. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the testifiers, not the Institute of Medicine or its parent organization, the National Academy of Sciences.
The Institute of Medicine was chartered in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to enlist distinguished members of the appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. In this, the Institute acts under both the Academy's 1863 congressional charter responsibility to be an adviser to the federal government and its own initiative in identifying issues of medical care, research, and education.