Secretary's Council on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2010

DR. BOUFFORD: Why don't we begin. First of all, good morning and welcome to everybody, all of our illustrious visitors, as well as our colleagues within the Department and guests from outside. This is the first meeting of the Secretary's Council on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2010. We hope that it will be a chance to talk over and gather wisdom on some tough decisions that are facing this process going forward. Each of the people around this table either has been involved with it historically, or is very involved with making it real on a day to day basis, so we're delighted to have you all here.

As is usual on a Monday morning, with the floods in North Dakota, the Secretary has been called to a Cabinet meeting at 10:00 a.m. and will not be able to be here at any predictable time. However, we're hoping she will be able to stick her head in and say hello before the day is out. Kevin Thurm will be joining us shortly for a sort of introduction, welcoming and swearing in. So, since everybody is well experienced with being flexible, we will sort of get ourselves started by asking everyone to go around and introduce themselves.

[Introduction of participants.]

DR. BOUFFORD: I'm not going to introduce everybody outside because we would be here most of the morning, I think, but we're delighted to have everyone here to participate in and join us in this meeting.

You see an agenda on your table, and I think you will be pleased to know that you will not be locked in this room all day without a break or lunch, if you saw the first agenda that you might have gotten in the mail. So we will sort of see how we're going between the discussion with the Assistant Secretaries and the operating division heads if we need a stretch break then. Otherwise, we will plan to break for lunch at 11:45 and reconvene around 1:00 and look to finish around 4:00, 4:15. Hopefully, as we move through the agenda, we will have time to invite some public comment at the end of the day before the meeting is adjourned.

Agenda Item: Context for the meeting

So with that, let me start in on sort of the context for the meeting, understanding that we could be interrupted for Kevin's arrival. First of all, the goals of the meeting are three, primarily. One is to ask those of you who have been involved in this process over the last actually 20 years or so to really share with us your perspectives on the lessons learned from seeing the Healthy People 2000, the sort of national health promotion, disease prevention objectives out and working as a process, as a system and what you think of it, what reflections you have on it.

Secondly, to review with you--have the staff review--the plans for 2010, which really, as usual, must begin now to be sure that the next generation of objectives is strengthened and can appeal to a broader audience, which is some of the feedback we are getting in the early rounds of consultation for 2010.

Third, to really talk about the process that we want to go through for beginning to get people involved nationally in both the public and private sector in the 2010 developments. So, it's what have we learned so far, what are some of the issues substantively, technically around the 2010 objectives, and finally what process should we use to engage a broader audience in the development of the next generation.

The agenda for the meeting is really designed very much about that. We will start with asking the former Assistant Secretaries to really share their experience with Healthy People at various stages along the way, and then ask our colleagues who are leading the operating divisions of the department. While the initial process has primarily involved the Public Health Service operating divisions, since the reorganization of the department, HCFA, AOA and ACF are now included as part of the Healthy People process. We have had some conversations along the way of needing to be sure that the Healthy People objectives do bring in the very important social welfare dimension of health, which we all know is a critical underpinning of health.

Then, after a lunch break, Shoshanna Sofaer from GW, who has been managing a series of focus groups with various constituencies, will share her findings on what people's views are about Healthy People so far and ideas for the future. And Earl Fox will then lay out sort of the mechanics of what is being planned for 2010 for your comment. Ed Sondik will help us talk about the data issues. There are obviously some critical questions there. Then we will talk about a sort of new involvement, broader involvement of the business community, which Earl will brief us on at the end of the day and then have comments, and hopefully next steps both for this group and for the staff in pursuing the process.

Just in terms of a sort of status report on Healthy People in general, the overall Consortium which was really established to go well beyond the Federal Department of HHS, is extremely robust. It has doubled in size and now consists of more than 600 organizations, including 345 national organizations and about 31 business associations. The Consortium meets annually, usually in concert with the APHA annual meeting, and has quarterly newsletters that keep people apprised of the program, the various initiatives, and shares materials to communicate, work with States and communities, and the private sector. So, knowing that the Consortium is robust, we will now shift over to welcome our Deputy Secretary Kevin Thurm.

We went around the room and a lot of people are acting or designee, so you're the real thing. We're delighted to have you here--

[Laughter.]

--to welcome everybody and conduct the swearing in of the Assistant Secretaries for Health.

MR. THURM: Can we go around the room again? I'm sorry I wasn't here for everybody doing that.

I appreciate the opportunity to step in for the Secretary this morning, to inaugurate a council that has the potential to have a tremendous impact on folks' lives well into the 21st century.

I think, first, I ought to thank and recognize Dr. Julie Richmond, Monty DuVal and Phil Lee and Bob Windom and to say how grateful I and my colleagues are that you all have come back to serve with us.

It's my understanding that Dr. Richmond began the Healthy People process in 1979, proposing five goals to the nation, and made the case for making significant improvements in the health of the American people by systematically addressing barriers to good health. Each of the Assistant Secretaries who followed you has expanded upon this model, and we will rely on the continued leadership of the former Assistant Secretaries.

The Secretary tells me that, as part of her Gore-Chernomyrdin process, that the Healthy People model of disease prevention and health prevention has taken root and attracted strong interest with our Russian colleagues. That's testament to the work you all have done.

In recent years, we've seen great payoffs from this kind of work. The number of vaccine-preventable diseases has decreased significantly and the rate of childhood immunization has grown significantly. We've taken historic steps to kick Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man out of our children's lives forever. Infant mortality rates are at their lowest rates ever. It's great progress for which you all, everybody in this room, should take great credit, but it obviously is not yet sufficient.

Together, this council's task is to make sure that the Healthy People process creates a tool not just for public health policy makers, and for people in this room, but for all policy makers at every level of State and local government to improve the health outcomes of our nation.

Agenda Item: Swearing in of Council Members

MR. THURM: I'm told that because of the Secretary's absence, I have the honor of swearing in the former Assistant Secretaries, which is not something I actually had thought I would get to do today, but I am thrilled that I have the opportunity to do it. So if I can ask you each to stand--Chris, are you in a good position to capture this?

[Laughter.]

Do you want to raise your right hand? It is a good picture.

[Swearing-in ceremony. Drs. DuVal, Lee, Richmond and Windom repeat after Mr. Thurm.]

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I'm about to enter, so help me God.

Thanks. Did you all do this before?

[Applause.]

[Pictures were taken.]

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