Acting Surgeon General Encourages Americans to Know Health History

Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson, M.D., M.P.H., encourages everyone to identify and make a record of health problems that seem to run in the family. The Office of the Surgeon General has an updated Web tool to help create that health history.

"Talking about and sharing your own family health history is something you can do right now in order to gain an understanding of your health and the health of family members," says Galson. "It's a starting point for taking fuller charge of your own health future.

"Tracing the illnesses your grandparents, parents, and additional blood relatives have suffered from can help your health care provider predict diseases and disorders from which you could be at risk," Galson said.

Families can use the Web-based tool "My Family Health Portrait." This tool provides consumers with a free and easily-to-use way to assemble their family health information. Launched in 2004 in partnership with several other agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Surgeon General's Family History Initiative encourages all American families to learn more about their family health history.

Thanksgiving Day is Family Health History Day

“Knowing your family health history is an important way to understand your risk factors and the preventive steps you can take to keep you and your family healthy,” stated DPH Commissioner J. Robert Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.

The goal of the Family Health Initiative is to provide an accessible method for easily obtaining an accurate family health history and, importantly, to use that information in health promotion and disease prevention. Such information is important because, although it is estimated that in a few years sophisticated genetic testing and other related advances will dramatically change how health care is practiced, genetic information can already be used today to improve health.

HHS Launches New Family Health History Initiative

U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona declared Thanksgiving Day, when American families traditionally gather to celebrate and give thanks, to be the first annual National Family History Day. Americans are encouraged to use their family gatherings as a time to collect important family health history information that can benefit all family members.

To help gather family history information, HHS released a new, free computer program that organizes important health information into a printout that can be taken to a health care professional to help determine whether a patient is at higher risk for disease. The printout can also be placed in a patient's medical record. The new computerized tool, called "My Family Health Portrait,"

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) operates a national database of medical practice guidelines, developed by independent medical and professional organizations, that can help individuals and their health care professionals to customize prevention programs. Family health history is one of the criteria for many of the practice guidelines, which frequently recommend specific medical testing to detect an illness early. The guidelines can be found at the National Guideline Clearinghouse. AHRQ is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The "My Family Health Portrait" software can be downloaded from the Internet and installed on computers using the Windows operating system with the .NET framework installed.
All personal information entered into the program is maintained on the user's computer only; no information is available to the federal government or any other agency. The software will be available in both English and Spanish.

In addition to the software tool, a print version of "My Family Health Portrait" will be available in English and Spanish ( this is so exciting, we will also have this in Spanish!!) through the Federal Citizen Information Center and at consolidated health centers nationwide. Consolidated health centers provide care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration funds the national network of more than 3,600 community health centers, migrant health centers, health care for the homeless centers, and public housing primary care centers.