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J O Mason

Publications and source records attributed to J O Mason.

78 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
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The prevention and control of chronic diseases: reducing unnecessary deaths and disability--a conference report.

Effective, yet underused, preventive measures exist to ameliorate such important public health problems as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and cervical cancer. The First National Conference on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control was convened in September 1986 by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Centers for Disease Control, Public Health Service, to disseminate information on successful chronic disease programs currently being implemented and to identify barriers to more wide-spread application of state-of-the-art prevention technology. This report briefly summarizes the deliberations of conference working groups (composed primarily of State and Federal public health officials) that addressed these issues. Numerous suggestions for improved surveillance, applied research, and training related to chronic disease prevention and control were offered, as well as ideas on organizing and marketing chronic disease intervention programs. The conference clearly identified a pressing need for a coalition of public health agencies and interested professional and voluntary organizations, as well as a coherent national agenda to combat chronic diseases.

Chronic Disease↗
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Interpreting risks to the public.

Human beings have always lived with risks and have coped as best they could, according to their perceptions of the relative dangers and the mechanisms available to them. Being conscious of risks helps us to confront and cope with them, but it also has negative effects. The multiplicity of threats and the urgency with which they are presented make it difficult to sort out those that we as individuals can control from those that we cannot. Consequently, we are in danger of surrendering to feelings of helplessness and apathy, which paralyze us in the act of coping even in situations in which personal action can make a difference. The challenge for those of us engaged in interpreting risks to the public is to do so in such a way that we convey a sense of relative risk; and, cumulatively over time, we need to "accentuate the positive" in the sense of communicating that it is well worth the effort for people to control those risks they can control. Risks over which individuals fell they have no control contrast with those related to daily lifestyle decisions. The public is aware of the risks associated with these decisions, but because of some overriding fears, the daily lifestyle choices receive lower priority than they deserve from the public. As health professionals, we can improve ways of presenting the most serious and most controllable threats and reach broader audiences with key messages.

Environmental Exposure↗
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Designing a National Disaster Medical System.

The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is a partnership of private and public sectors to provide care to the victims of great disasters. The system is being developed as a voluntary cooperative effort of four major Federal agencies, State and local governments, and the American professional and hospital communities. A medical response component will include 150 disaster medical assistance units capable of clearing or staging operations in a disaster. Each unit will comprise three 29-person teams containing physicians, nurses, medical technicians, and support personnel and will include a 16-person unit command and support element. An evacuation component will be founded on the military aeromedical evacuation system, augmented by civilian aircraft and other transportation resources. A hospital component will enroll 100,000 pre-committed beds in hospitals throughout the nation. The system is designed to care for up to 100,000 casualties arising from a massive peacetime disaster or an overseas conventional military conflict. The National Disaster Medical System will be implemented over a period of 3 to 5 years. The authors recommend that all parts of the American health care community join in support of the system.

Disaster Planning↗