The hub-bub over who might be appointed by President Barack Obama to be the new surgeon general has died down. And, no, a new one didn't get appointed. Seems the one name that was floated decided to turn down the opportunity.
So - do you know who the current acting surgeon general is? Not many do. In fact his name is Rear Admiral Dr. Steven Galson. As the nation's top doctor, he is tasked with looking at public health issues and promotion prevention as a healthy approach to living.
(And, with all due respect, I submit that the reason you've probably never heard of him is because there is TOOO little emphasis on prevention in this country. Since he's given no clout or power to really make it happen, especially because he began serving under our previous president, it's not likely in this climate of healthcare reform we'll hear much soon, either. And it's a shame, because he knows what he's doing. I've interviewed him, and I'm impressed.)
Dr. Galson has achieved a few important things in his brief tenure as surgeon general. He has made some solid inroads on eradicating childhood obesity. And he has revised and upgraded the tool available online that allows each of us to record our family medical history.
The new tool is impressive. It tracks all the right relatives, with all the necessarily recorded diseases, creates not just a list, but a family map, too, and since it doesn't get tracked or saved on the website, it's private. Yes, there are two or three points that might be nice to have, but this tool is free, convenient and actually very interesting when you print out the map.
So let's thank our acting surgeon general, whether he's a household name or not. Give the new tool a try.
Then print the results and share them with other family members who can benefit from your efforts. It might serve its purpose; that is, helping someone in your family work on preventing one of those familial diseases. If it does, then Dr. Galson will have one more success in his cap.
It's win-win.
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