Summary of the Leading Health Indicator Critical Issue Session
Seattle: Regions VIII and X
December 2, 1998

J. Michael McGinnis, MD
Scholar-in-Residence, National Academy of Sciences

• Purpose of the session is to consider whether a relatively small set of health indicators can be identified which will reflect progress towards the health goals for the Nation.

• Provided an overview of progress to date on leading health indicators.

Thomas L. Milne
Executive Director, National Association of County and City Health Officials

• Based on prior work in the state of Washington and with NACCHO, encourages HHS to develop leading health indicators that include health topics of interest to local health departments, measurable at the local level and understandable by the general population.

• Consideration should be given to newly developing APEX-CPH, which will include quality of life measures, behavioral risk factors, and environmental health.

• Leading health indicators should reflect interests and priorities across the Nation in a balanced way.

Neal Halfon, MD, MPH
Professor, UCLA School of Public Health

• Encourages HHS to develop leading health indicators that are valid, innovative and strategic. The indicators should reflect the multiple determinants of individual and community health and should demonstrate the life course.

• Selection of leading health indicators should take into consideration the dynamic relationship between risk and protective factors, critical periods, and disparities in health.

• In addition, leading health indicators should focus on levels of influence and accountability at individual, family, organization, and community levels.

Richard Wright, MD, MPH
Director of Community Health Services, Denver Department of Health and Hospitals

• HHS should consider using the Field Health Model (Evans and Stoddart) that was included in the Institute of Medicine’s report on Improving Health in the Community (1997).

• Encourages HHS to consider ongoing efforts that are focused on the community (i.e., Community Health Status Indicators project that is being carried out through Public Health Foundation in collaboration with Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and National Association of County and City Health Officials).

Dee Robertson, MD, MPH
Medical Epidemiologist, Northwest Tribal Research Center

• Health is created at the community level; the leading health indicators should speak to communities and be measurable by communities.

• Health status measures often cannot be measured at the community level due to small populations and infrequency of events.

• Indicators must drive program action.

• Indicator character: simple, understandable, hard-hitting, measurable, and valid.

• Indicator relevance: community level.

• Indicator "launch quotient": with thoughtful packaging, the indicators will lead to action at multiple levels (national, state, local, private sector, personal).

Seattle Transcripts and Summaries