DISEASE PREVENTION is everyone's health care byword today, so it isn't surprising that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Md, is being recruited to the cause.
What was new at the 3-day meeting held by the NIH Director's Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion is the focus on a wide-ranging, turfcrossing design meant to lay the groundwork for the agency's role in this effort.
Although the timing appeared propitious, given the present enthusiasm for disease prevention expressed by everyone from Hillary Rodham Clinton down, such a meeting has been in the talking stages for 5 years and formal planning started before Bill Clinton became president. Moreover, prevention has always been on the NIH agenda, since the creation of the National Cancer Institute in 1937.
Indeed, much of the research supported by the individual institutes, centers, and divisions is prevention related but, says Jack Kalberer, Jr, PhD, coordinator of