The family physician and health objectives for the nation

Specific, measurable health objectives for the nation have helped guide federal, state, and local policy in disease prevention and health promotion during the 1980s. About one half of these objectives will probably be achieved by 1990. Public awareness of hypertension and its consequences, for example, is at very high levels. Although the physician's office is a key setting for accomplishing many of the objectives, physicians remain largely uninformed about them and uninvolved in the broader process of public health policy formulation. Family medicine, as a specialty concerned about the care of the individual in the context of family and community, has much to contribute to future public health planning efforts. A plan for drafting the year 2000 objectives is beginning. Because the objectives will help shape health policy in the future, family physicians should be involved in developing appropriate health objectives for the nation and helping to implement them.