Thursday February 21, 2002

Press Release

SOURCE: American College of Preventive Medicine
Preventive Medicine Conference Opening Day Highlighted by U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Dean Ornish, Diet and Cardiac Specialist
Notable Speakers Discuss Prevention as First Line of Defense in Various Areas Of Public Health, Including Bioterrorism, Obesity and Nutrition

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services Tommy Thompson, M.D., participated in the inaugural address today at Preventive Medicine 2002, the annual meeting of the American College of Preventive Medicine being held here Feb. 20 through 24. Dean Ornish, M.D., Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, gave the keynote speech and was on hand to answer questions from attendees, some of the premier preventive health physicians and medical experts in the U.S.

Thompson, who addressed the audience by videotape, said, ``We look at things backward in this country. We wait until people get sick, and then provide them with care. It creates billions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare costs.'' He added that he intends to ``ignite a national dialogue about the state of America's health,'' and will be calling on preventive health experts, such as those attending this conference, for ideas, suggestions and help. He also briefly discussed President Bush's new ``Healthy Communities Innovation Initiative,'' with a $20 million budget to bring together community-wide resources to help prevent diabetes, asthma and obesity.

Obesity, diet and cardiac health was the subject of Dr. Ornish's keynote speech, ``Diet, Lifestyle and the Power to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease.'' His successful Optimal Lifestyle program, which has been shown in numerous published studies to reduce and even reverse heart disease through diet and exercise, is now being supported by the government in a new initiative, Ornish announced today act the meeting. A bipartisan commitment by the Bush administration and members of Congress will allow Medicare to pay for 1,800 patients to go through the program at the sites that he and his colleagues at Lifestyle Advantage have trained. This is notable, he says, since most healthcare insurers do not routinely cover preventive medicine programs and indicates a new commitment to make preventive health a priority, as Thompson also indicated today.

SOURCE: American College of Preventive Medicine

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