Deputy Surgeon General Promotes Health History at BWH

U.S. Deputy Surgeon General Kenneth P. Moritsugu, MD, MPH, in April encouraged BWH staff and their children to participate in the Surgeon General’s Family Health Initiative during a presentation at BWH’s Take Our Children To Work Day.

“In delving into your own genealogy, you have to be creative and proactive,” Moritsugu said to those gathered in the Bornstein Amphitheater. “I encourage each of you to go home tonight, and just start asking questions at the dinner table.”

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Family Health Initiative is a nationwide effort to encourage Americans to record their family health history and share it with their primary care physicians. BWH was selected as the nation’s first large employer to participate in the initiative, as the BWH Family History Project was launched here to assess the accessibility and usefulness of the online tool. The BWH Family History Project recently opened an interactive computer kiosk to assist employees in filling out their family’s health history.

Thanks to the efforts of Family History Project leaders and staff, including Karen Holbrook, Michael Murray, MD, and Cynthia Morton, PhD, approximately half of the 400 BWHers who filled out the survey confirmed having completed their family health history. Nearly one in six survey respondents already has shared the information with their primary care physician, while most others plan to do so at their next scheduled appointment.