Family Health History
Because family health history is such a powerful screening tool, the Surgeon General created a free website to help make it fun and easy for anyone to create a portrait of their family's health. My Family Health Portrait is a secure tool that takes about 20 minutes to create a unique family health portrait.
After completing the questions, the website creates a personalized “family health tree” that can be saved to a home computer. From there, families may update the information at any time. The tool can be shared with other family members, who can add their health information to the portrait. The portrait also can be an informative tool to share with a health care provider. All information remains private. The federal website does not retain the information once the tool has been used to assemble it. Create a family health portrait today!
National Family Health History Day
Each year since 2004, the Surgeon General has declared Thanksgiving to be National Family Health History Day. Over the holiday or at other times when families gather, the Surgeon General encourages Americans to talk about, and to write down, the health problems that seem to run in their family. Learning about their family's health history may help ensure a longer, healthier future together. Read more about the Surgeon General's Family Health History Initiative.
