President Lawrence Summers (l) with Katie Couric and Dean Barry Bloom at the Leadership Council meeting

"There is no other area of human endeavor in which the application of thought and resources can make so profound a difference in as many people’s lives as in the work of public health, and that is why this School is so profoundly important to the mission of the University," he said.

President Summers delivered the keynote address at the inaugural meeting of the HSPH Leadership Council on October 21 at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, MA. HSPH Dean Barry Bloom also spoke, outlining key agendas for the School. The luncheon brought together members of the School’s different advisory councils and other figures who have a strong interest and commitment to activities at HSPH. Organized by the Office for Resource Development, the meeting drew approximately 200 people from across the country and from as far afield as China and Lebanon. Participants met for a day-long program to learn about the research, initiatives and goals of the School.

During the luncheon, NBC’s Today co-anchor Katie Couric accepted the Julius B. Richmond Award from Dean Bloom.

Video coverage of remarks made by President Summers, Dean Bloom, Dean James Ware and Ms. Couric is available at the web site http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/leadership/.

What will Matter in the Future

From left to right, Howard Koh, head of the Division of Public Health Practice, Julius Richmond, Harvard Professor Emeritus, and Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Professor of Public Health Practice

President Summers’ open letter to the community is available at www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2003/lhs_allston.html, and a summary is available at www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/0310/21-summary.html. Dean Bloom’s letter to the HSPH community regarding Allston may be found at: www.hsph.harvard.edu/announcements/allston.html

Taking a long view, President Summers then touched upon key opportunities that could make a lasting difference in world history.

	Dean for Academic Affairs James Ware

The battle against SARS is an example of the benefits of globalization, he said. As best can be judged–fewer than 1,000 people died of SARS in 2003 compared to three percent of the earth’s population who died in 1918 of a flu virus thought to be less virulent than SARS. A difference lies in improved knowledge of infectious disease spread and effective international collaboration.

The genomic revolution has produced technologies that promise better understanding of diseases, including those that are not largely emphasized in the U.S. but that affect many people in other areas of the world, said President Summers. Contagions such as malaria–studied at HSPH–kill hundreds of thousands of children in less developed regions, he said, but are as amenable to science as diseases more commonly studied in the U.S.

"Surely an institution committed deeply to science and committed deeply to human welfare is remiss if not doing everything it possibly can to harness science to challenge global disease," he said.

The increasing nature of society in which rational, data-driven and analytical approaches are applied to a far wider range of human activity bodes well for the future, said President Summers. Such approaches can change common thinking, as when the innovation of the double-blind clinical trial exposed a number of therapies and clinical trials as less effective than previously thought.

Agendas for Public Health and the School

The greatest contribution HSPH can make is training leaders of the future, said Dean Bloom in his welcome remarks. The students who choose to come to the School are dedicated to helping the poorest and most underserved populations, he said, noting that six former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as a former director of the World Health Organization, are HSPH graduates.

Dean Bloom described several public health priorities for HSPH.

Half of the approximately 2.5 million deaths in the U.S. each year–and an even greater percentage of annual deaths world wide–could be prevented or postponed by public health and preventive interventions, said Dean Bloom. For example, 19 percent of Americans die of tobacco-related illness, 14 percent die of poor diet and lack of exercise, and another 14 percent die of injuries, at least half of which could be prevented. As a result, social and behavioral non-medical determinants of disease are an area of interest to HSPH.

The cost of health care is rising more rapidly than any other index in all countries in the world, including the poorest, noted Dean Bloom. Health system reform, an important priority, will not be achieved through incremental changes. Public health professionals will need to consider "how to think of health care not as hospitals, not as outpatient doctors, not as the public health service," he said, "but as a system, a complex integrated system with gross inefficiencies and lack of any kind of architecture, let alone rational decision-making. This is an overarching challenge for everybody in public health."

More than 30 years after the US Surgeon General described the book on infectious diseases as closing, recent history has shown the book remains wide open. Since 1969, noted Dean Bloom, 32 new infectious diseases such as AIDS, Ebola and hepatitis C have been identified. Communicable diseases represent one-third of all deaths world wide, he said, and about 41 percent of the global burden of illness.

"We know that our infectious disease agenda is unfinished, and we know that emerging infections will continue to bother us, so we must invest in both laboratory and public health preparedness ways to anticipate them," said Dean Bloom.

State Representative Sal DiMasi was in attendance.

A less discussed but still important public health agenda relates to injuries, casualties of war and humanitarian concerns, said Dean Bloom. In the U.S., 14 percent of deaths are caused by injuries, and researchers predict that automobile accidents will be among the top killers in the world by 2020.

In addition to these agendas, Dean Bloom touched upon three cross cutting issues that HSPH faculty would like to undertake if resources for research could be secured: studying the intersection between the human genome, epidemiology and external health risks; reducing health disparities; and extending knowledge globally.

Couric Receives Richmond Award for Colon Cancer Prevention Efforts

	Katie Couric spoke after receiving the Julius B. Richmond Award.

Couric spent the period of her husband’s illness both caring for him and scrambling to research the disease that was eating away at his life. After his death, she re-channeled her efforts into an ongoing national colon cancer awareness effort.

The news anchor recounted her husband’s story, holding back tears, after receiving the Julius B. Richmond Award for her prevention efforts from Dean Barry Bloom on October 21 at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, MA. The honor is the highest award conferred by HSPH and was originated by the Division of Public Health Practice. The luncheon was part of the inaugural meeting of the HSPH Leadership Council.

"In a media that pays more attention to what’s on my head than what’s in it and focuses more on my footwear than the journey I have taken," said Couric, "I am overwhelmed and grateful that you have recognized my efforts in this area."

The Julius B. Richmond Award seeks to pay tribute to an individual who–like Richmond–has promoted and achieved high standards for public health conditions in vulnerable populations. Richmond was U.S. Surgeon General from 1977 to 1981 and was the first National Director of the Head Start Program. He is currently the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy Emeritus at Harvard University.

Couric’s series "Confronting Colon Cancer" aired on Today in March 2000 and had a profound impact on public awareness of colorectal cancer and prevention strategies. She underwent a televised colonoscopy. "I got up close and personal to take the fear and embarrassment out of the procedure and to explain to people that it really isn’t that bad," said Couric. "It may not be at the top of everybody’s ‘to do’ list, but I always say that it is a lot less painful than being diagnosed with colon cancer."

Couric, Lilly Tartikoff and the Entertainment Industry Foundation launched the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA) to support education, research and regular medical screenings efforts. Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System and University of Iowa have tracked the results of the work, estimating that the number of colonoscopy screenings nationwide increased by almost 20 percent. They have called the change "the Couric Effect."

"While I have been lucky enough to be featured in a host of magazines, I think the article about the ‘Couric Effect’ in JAMA was one of the most gratifying moments of my life," she said.

In March 2004, The Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health, named after Couric’s husband, is scheduled to open, she said. The clinical center is part of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the U.S., despite the fact that it is highly treatable if detected early. People tend not to take advantage of available screening methods, said Couric.