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PRINCIPLES REGARDING PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH

The American Medical Student Association:

1.             DEFINES preventive medicine to be the application of biomedical, epidemiological and socioeconomic science to the promotion of mental and physical health and social well being and the prevention or early detection of disease in individuals or populations;

2.             In regard to research:

a.             URGES the government, universities and businesses to focus medical research on ways to prevent or reduce disease burden, especially the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Due consideration should be given to all systems of healing. (2006)

b.             SUPPORTS continued federal funding of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; (1996)

3.             In regard to the community:

a.             URGES physicians and other health professionals to educate, screen, refer, treat and provide follow-up programs for the public with regard to preventive medicine;

b.             URGES the physician to work with the patient to help him/her become informed, active and responsible to participate in health maintenance and the prevention of disease;

c.             URGES the development of community programs in the education and screening of individuals to aid in the prevention of disease;

d.             ENCOURAGES planners, advocates and practitioners of health promotion and preventive medicine to design programs effective for and relevant to the entire population, and in doing so, consider economic, racial, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, ethnic, and/or religious determinants of health care seeking behavior as they relate to the adoption of positive health behaviors. (1985)

e.             SUPPORTS coverage of routine childhood vaccinations as one aspect of preventive care in all types of health insurance policies and prepaid health plans. (1987)

f.              In regard to circumcision:

1.             URGES the education of communities and medical professionals regarding the aspects of circumcision and infant care; (1987)

2.             URGES that these procedures be undertaken only after informed consent from parents or legal guardians is obtained; (1987)

3.             URGES the incorporation of appropriate anesthetic techniques in all newborn circumcisions. (1999)

4.             In regard to education:

a.             URGES the American medical profession to make preventive medicine, including clinical preventive medicine and epidemiology, an integral part of the core education of students, residents, practicing physicians and other health professionals; (1995)

b.             URGES physicians and other healthcare professionals to educate themselves on the use of evidence-based ICAM regarding lifestyle practices, foods and herbal medicines, towards prevention and reduction of disease, particularly in a primary care setting. (2006)

5.                             Regarding Safety:

a.             URGES stricter laws and law enforcement in an effort to reduce death and injury from automobile accidents, including the following provisions:

1.             car safety inspection be required in all states;

2.             annual examination of ability to drive be required of all drivers 70 years of age or older;

3.             in order to obtain a license, permission be granted to submit to a chemical test of sobriety whenever intoxication while driving is suspected;

4.             driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol level greater than .05% (50 mg. alcohol/100 ml. of blood) be illegal;

5.             laws that would provide for mandatory punishment and license suspension of any individual, at least upon the second conviction for driving while intoxicated;          

6.             upholding of the posted speed limit;

7.             mandatory infant care restraints, mandatory air bags as a passive restraint, and mandatory wearing of adult seat belts or other protective devices, as well as mandatory wearing of motorcycle helmets. (1988)

b.             In regard to automobile safety:

1.             URGES all parents, community leaders, health professionals and governmental and private sector agencies to do everything possible to ensure that every child in the United States is protected from injury by safe infant car restraints and child car seats when being transported in a motor vehicle;

2.             URGES all governmental and private agencies that provide transportation for children to accept responsibility for their safety and to adopt policies ensuring proper restraint for those children to reduce injury;

c.             URGES legislation, community programs and education from health-care professionals regarding gun safety, bicycle helmets, smoke detectors and other safety aspects and SUPPORTS addressing these areas by medical training; (1995)

6.             In regard to day care:

a.             URGES health professionals to actively provide educational and consultation services to families using community day care centers, URGES requiring all programs to meet federal standards including ratios of caretakers to children, and URGES requiring that all standards are applied equally; (1995)

b.             SUPPORTS increased funding to day care centers, ENCOURAGES expanding the successful programs such as Head Start Program and ENCOURAGES further development of innovative programs to establish child care facilities to address the community needs; (1995)

c.             SUPPORTS the concept of federal, state, local and private investment in these programs and ENCOURAGES improved consistency between funding programs and the provision of a seamless system on the state and local level; (1995)

d.             ENCOURAGES improved child care options for all welfare recipients, at risk working poor, and children of high school age and younger parents, by the following:

1.             Provide services or funds for childcare at the community’s market rate. (1995)

2.             URGES the establishment of these centers within the schools, if applicable, that the parent or parents attend. (1995)

3.             Provide services for the duration of participation in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)  program and train individuals in the TANF program to be child care providers. (1995)

4.             Provide services to the working poor based on a sliding scale. (1995)

e.             ENCOURAGES programs that address the needs of 0 - 3-year-olds in addition to those of older children. (1995)

7.             SUPPORTS legislation requiring the U.S. Bureau of Census to adjust for undercount in the 1990 census and all decennial censuses thereafter. (1990)

8.             BELIEVES that health is determined by many factors other than medical care, including genetic predisposition to pathology, lifestyle and the environment (physical, social, occupational and economic);

9.             SUPPORTS programs such as Healthy People 2010, a program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in systematic efforts to determine measurable goals and objectives for improving the public health by the promotion of health and the prevention of disease. 

10.           ENCOURAGES communities, professional organizations and states to utilize Healthy People 2010 to develop programs to improve the public health.

11.           URGES the American health profession to exchange information on preventive medicine with any available health agencies, including the World Health Organization;

12.           In regards to universal coverage of recommended vaccines:

a.             SUPPORTS the HP2010 goal of immunizing 90% of children under the age of 3 with 4 doses diptheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccine; 3 doses Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine; 3 doses hepatitis B vaccine; 1 dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccine; 3 doses polio vaccine; and 1 dose varicella vaccine by the year 2010. (2004)

b.             URGES that any new universally recommended vaccine not listed above be supported in reaching a 90% coverage level within 5 years of the recommendation by the ACIP as stated as revised, much like the newly recommended 3 doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine that was first recommended in 2002. (2004)

c.             URGES that federal, state, local and non-governmental programs aimed at increasing vaccination rates be made a top priority and be sufficiently funded every fiscal year to attain and maintain a 90% coverage level as determined and revised by the ACIP. (2004)

13.           SUPPORTS mandated coverage in all types of health insurance policies and prepaid health plans for preventive medicine and public health efforts including: (2004)

a.             Universally recommended childhood vaccines; (2004)

b.             Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination of high-risk adults (as deemed by the Centers for Disease Control and  Prevention); (2004)

c.             Family planning and pregnancy prevention efforts including but not limited to Oral Contraceptive Pills; (2004)

d.             Smoking cessation efforts; (2004)

e.             Mental health services; (2004)

f.              Nutrition, sexually transmitted disease and exercise counseling; (2004)

g.             Pap smears and mammograms as indicated ; (2004)

h.             Colonoscopies as indicated; (2004)

and any other Evidence Based Preventive Medicine practices as deemed by the United States Preventive Health Services Task Force. (2004)