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                                         onal Iledical Programs





                  The Regional lIc-dical Programs Service, in combination with Compre-

             hensive Health Planning and the National Center  for  Health  Services,
             Research and Development, supports activities calculated to enhance the

             capacity of the health care system to flirnish.services of satisfactory

             quality to all Americans.  These activities are conducted by Regional

             Medical Programs which ha.e been organized  as  functional  consortiums

             of health care providers, each with special and specific resources which

             can be made responsive to healtl. ...eeds.  Such efforts are designed to

             improve manpower development and utilization, to demonstrate new

              !chniques and innovative delivery patterns, t, promote the more efficient

             linking together of scarce  resources, and to develop and implement

             quality of care guidelines and performance review mechanisms.

                                 Role of Regional Medical Programs

                  Regional Medical- Programs has broadened its  origina  concept  of

             purveying scientific knowledge in categorical areas to an activity that

             develops and promotes opportunities for the providers of care in  t'.ie

             private sector to expand and improve the delivery of quality health care.

             Thus reshaped, it can accomodate changing concepts and carry out

             significant new federal initiatives.

             Relationship to Federal Initiatives

                  The ability of Regional Medical Programs to coordinate resources and

             work successfully with other programs is being relied on to intro uce









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             such efforts as Area Healtb Education Centers which will help alleviate

             the health manpower needs of communities.  Similarly,  Regional  Medical

             Programs are participating in Emergency Medical Service activities where,

             by combining transportation, communication, and medical services into

             rapid response systems, we can save lives and reduce the  likelihood  of

             disability.

                  In the kidney disease area, we are stepping up our activities to

             develop national dialysis and transplant networks of resources throughout

             the country to assure maxinurq possible access to those in need of  such

             services.


             Need to Solve L-cal. Problems


                 While the direction of resources toward new national objectives is

              iportant, we must not lose sight of the major disease elements with

             which the program is conce-ned. While we continue  to  direct  attention

             to the major killing and crippling diseases, (@ieart, cancer, stroke and

             kidney), in doirg so we strengthen the health care delivery system as

             attention is focused on such areas as hypertension and rheumatic fever.

                 What we have is a strong local-Federal alliance, some Federal funding

             on the one hand and local planning and decisionmaking on the other.  The

             communi i and its Comprehensive Health Planni,ig agency define t e needs;

             and the Regional Advisory Group, with the assistance of t e Regiona  @tedica

             Program and its Federal counterpart, designs the implementation and operation

             of programs which will meet those needs.








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                 With the 1970 progra@ amendments placing emphasis on  primary service,

            quality of care and manpower utilization and development,  through local

            effort and in concert with the efforts of the other Developmental programs

            in Health Services and Mental Health Administration, we believe that the

            Regional Medical Programs have the potential. to meet even the most

            optimistic of expectations.