Monday, January 25, 1999
U.S. surgeon general speaks at UCLA
LECTURE: Satcher calls for healthier lifestyles, broader care
availability
By Edina Lekovic
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
There was once a rookie on the Chicago Bulls team who, during
his first pro career game, scored one point. The same night,
teammate Michael Jordan scored 60 points.
Asked by an enthusiastic media corps how he would remember his
first professional game, the rookie reportedly said, "I will
remember it as the evening that Michael Jordan and I combined for
61 points."
U.S. surgeon general David Satcher plans to remember his career
the same way.
"The reason I like that story is that that’s the real story of
my career," Satcher said. "I have been able to combine with some
really outstanding people, and Lester Breslow is one of those
people."
Sponsored by the School of Public Health, the Lester Breslow
Distinguished Lecture marked its silver anniversary last Thursday
with Satcher’s call to "eliminate barriers to health lifestyles."
Named for the dean emeritus of the School of Public Health, the
lecture series brings leaders in the health field to campus.
Addressing a crowd of roughly 200, Satcher reflected on a career
that began as a faculty member at UCLA.
Satcher, who is the second person ever to be named surgeon
general and assistant secretary of health simultaneously, explained
his priorities to a room filled to capacity with health
professionals and eager public health students.
"I want to be remembered not only as the surgeon general who
spoke to the American people, but listened," said Satcher, who was
confirmed by Congress in February of 1998.
The position of surgeon general has become a high-profile
political lightning rod. Three years ago, President Clinton fired
then-surgeon general Jocelyn Elders after she agreed that
masturbation could be part of sex education. Henry Foster’s
nomination to succeed Elders sunk when he acknowledged he had
performed abortions.
Satcher is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of
Medicine and the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles. He
developed and chaired King/Drew’s Department of Family Medicine
and, from 1977 to 1979, served as the interim dean of the Charles
Drew Medical School.
Abdelmonem Afifi, dean of the School of Public Health, has known
Satcher since the early 1970s, when he was a faculty member at the
Drew Medical Center. Afifi commended Satcher’s efforts to create an
agreement that tied the medical curriculum of Drew and UCLA Medical
Centers together, creating the Drew/UCLA Medical partnership.
"All he had to do was convince 70 percent of the faculty of Drew
and 70 percent of the faculty at UCLA," Afifi said. "It wasn’t
easy, but he did it. That’s just the kind of guy he is."
But this is just another example of what Satcher would call
"combining with the right people."
Pointing to the pioneering work of Breslow in the area of
promoting healthy lifestyles, Satcher said the current generation
of children is probably the most physically inactive generation in
American history, causing the highest levels of childhood obesity
ever.
"As a nation, we don’t promote healthy lifestyles," Satcher
said. "We glamorize bad nutrition, cigarette smoking and
irresponsible sexual behavior."
As the government’s chief spokesman for American health, Satcher
promotes healthy lifestyles that encompass nutrition, physical
activity, sexual responsibility and the avoidance of toxicants.
By the year 2007, America will be spending $2 billion on
increasing the quality of health care. While the health care
reforms of 1993 increased access to 43 million uninsured Americans,
Satcher said racial minorities clearly have less access to adequate
health care.
Satcher said managed care does not appear to be a solution to
the access problem. At this, the audience applauded loudly in
support.
"Wait a minute – I’m not done yet," he said. "I’m also not sure
managed care is the villain it’s made out to be.
"What we need is a balanced community health system and that
takes a national commitment – something we don’t currently have,"
he continued.
In an effort to enhance the quality and years of healthy life,
he has launched Healthy People 2010, a campaign aimed at
eliminating disparities in public health based on race.
Ethnic minorities are currently hardest hit by infant mortality,
HIV, diabetes complications and cardiovascular diseases, said
Satcher.
"As we struggle with the issue of eliminating disparities, we’re
going to have to address some of the issues," he said. "When we
target the most vulnerable among us, everyone benefits."
Pointing to his success while director of the Center for Disease
Control (CDC) in increasing immunization to an all-time high of 78
percent, Satcher explained similar outreach needs to take place to
the nation’s underserved communities.
"Access to health care is a political and social issue and it
must be looked at that way," he said. "I’m optimistic but I don’t
take for granted the amount of work that it’s going to take to get
from here to there."
Like many of her colleagues in the audience, Myduc Ta found the
surgeon general’s speech to be realistic.
"He’s optimistic but recognizes that certain barriers exist and
he’s addressing those barriers," said Ta, a second-year
epidemiology student in the School of Public Health.
"He does not have a naive notion (of those barriers), but
recognizes social, political and religious beliefs that emerge on
the road to achieving your goals," Ta said.NICOLE MILLER
Dr. David Satcher, the surgeon general of the United States, was
the featured speaker in Thursday’s segment of the School of Public
Health’s Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture series.
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