Additional Family History Resources

• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention (OGDP) has embarked on a Family History Public Health Initiative. This initiative, which is being carried out collaboratively with several CDC programs and NIH Institutes, is evaluating whether family history information can be used to assess risk of common diseases and influence early detection and prevention strategies. As a result of these efforts, the US Surgeon General's Family History Initiative was recently launched to encourage all American families to learn more about their family health history.
  
  The goal of the initiative is to provide accessible methods for easily obtaining an accurate family health history. This information can be provided to health care professionals to help make decisions about screening and other prevention efforts for specific conditions that run in families. A free copy of My Family Health Portrait, a software tool for collection and organization of family health information, can be downloaded in both English and Spanish.
• The CDC listserv on family history for preventive medicine and public health provides a forum for health care providers and the public to exchange experiences and expertise related to the use of family history for disease prevention, including discussions about ideas and strategies for promoting the use of family history tools. The listserv can also be used to disseminate relevant information, such as new research findings, meetings and conference announcements, and information about funding opportunities. To subscribe send an email to listserv@listserv.gov. Leave the subject line blank. In the message, type: subscribe Family-History-List Yourfirstname Yourlastname.