Stronger health system will bring a healthier population

A major overhaul of funding, organization and coordination will help the public health system meet the challenges coming its way, says an Institute of Medicine panel.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Dec. 2, 2002.

Washington -- Connecting the work of the solitary physician to the health of the entire nation is a bit of a stretch, but the Institute of Medicine did just that in a recently released report that examined the nation's health care system and found there is a need for much improvement.

"America is not as healthy as it can be," said Jo Ivey Boufford, MD, who co-chaired the committee that wrote the IOM report.

However, the tools and techniques that can contribute to a healthy population are at hand, said Dr. Boufford, a professor at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

What is needed is a coordinated push by the health care delivery system, businesses, the media, academia and the community itself to improve the health of everyone, she said.

The IOM provides advice on health policy issues under a congressional charter to the National Academies of Science. The report, The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century, was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration and other government agencies.

"It's important for physicians to realize that they are an important part of the system to improve the health of the public," said committee member John Lumpkin, MD, MPH, who directs the Illinois Dept. of Health.

"I know when I was working in the emergency department it was very difficult to see beyond the next patient -- or even beyond the next day -- because of the frustrations of trying to get my patients taken care of," he said. [...]