AMA Foundation invests in health of America

The Fund for Better Health continues the AMA Foundation's strong tradition of advancing public health.

Editorial. Feb. 16, 2004.

When legendary House Speaker Tip O'Neill said "all politics is local," he could just as easily have been talking about successful public health initiatives.

It is the foot soldiers working in communities across this country who must step up and develop programs that help the nation as a whole meet its public health goals. The AMA Foundation has recognized this and is providing a powerful weapon for local foot soldiers with its Fund for Better Health. Launched in 2002, the fund provides 25 $1,000 grants to AMA-affiliated organizations that address public health issues selected by the Foundation. In 2002 and 2003 those issues were health literacy promotion, anti-tobacco initiatives and violence prevention. The Foundation has decided to take on two new issues in 2004. This year's grants will be awarded in the areas of substance abuse prevention, health nutrition and physical fitness, and violence prevention.

The fund is the Foundation's way of providing seed money for grassroots community health programs and is part of its ongoing effort to recognize community service as a worthy goal for the medical profession and the organizations related to it.

Indeed, by adding the category of health nutrition and fitness into the fund this year, the Foundation has aligned itself with the AMA on what is sure to be the new public health battlefront. The AMA held an Obesity Action Workshop at its Interim Meeting in December 2003, and both the AMA and the American Academy of Family Physicians have released guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of patients who are overweight or obese.