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Editor's Note

Editor's Note The nation’s public health system is underfunded and overburdened, especially in an era in which public health departments are expected to perform an extraordinarily diverse range of tasks, including formulating population-based responses to infectious disease, preparing for bioterrorist attacks, conducting health promotion and education programs, and (in many communities) providing medical services to the poor and the uninsured. In this environment, public health leaders need to make difficult choices about priorities and strategies. In this issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Amy Fairchild and Ava Alkon examine the implications of one such strategic choice: a program developed by the New York City Department of Health to both track city residents with diabetes and (more unusually) to use the surveillance information to engage in active disease management (regardless of one’s insurance status). Joan Wolf then considers and challenges another major public health initiative, the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health. According to Wolf, the evidence on the risks of not breast-feeding is simply inadequate to warrant a public health campaign that might cause concern among women who do not breast-feed. We then offer http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law Duke University Press

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
© 2007 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0361-6878
eISSN
0361-6878
DOI
10.1215/03616878-2007-027
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The nation’s public health system is underfunded and overburdened, especially in an era in which public health departments are expected to perform an extraordinarily diverse range of tasks, including formulating population-based responses to infectious disease, preparing for bioterrorist attacks, conducting health promotion and education programs, and (in many communities) providing medical services to the poor and the uninsured. In this environment, public health leaders need to make difficult choices about priorities and strategies. In this issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Amy Fairchild and Ava Alkon examine the implications of one such strategic choice: a program developed by the New York City Department of Health to both track city residents with diabetes and (more unusually) to use the surveillance information to engage in active disease management (regardless of one’s insurance status). Joan Wolf then considers and challenges another major public health initiative, the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health. According to Wolf, the evidence on the risks of not breast-feeding is simply inadequate to warrant a public health campaign that might cause concern among women who do not breast-feed. We then offer

Journal

Journal of Health Politics, Policy and LawDuke University Press

Published: Aug 1, 2007

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