In December 2004, following a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Progress Review, Healthy Vision 2010 announced the completion of a most important phase. Now, all of the objectives will have baseline data identified for them by year's end. It moves the program from “developmental” to “measurable” status. This critical step allows specific targets for 2010 on all of the vision objectives, along with an operational definition for each objective. Vision and hearing are included for the first time in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People program to identify the most significant preventable threats to health and establish national goals to reduce these threats. The chapter on vision addresses visual impairment due to eye disease and refractive error; regular eye examinations for children and adults; vision screening for preschool children; injury prevention; and vision rehabilitation. Most states and many localities use the Healthy People framework to guide local health policies and programs. The purpose of the Progress Reviews is to provide a venue for federal agencies to report on progress toward achieving the Healthy People 2010 goals and objectives for each of the 28 focus areas. The review is a mechanism by which the lead agencies for a particular focus area brief the Assistant Secretary for Health on the latest data for the objectives and on advances made toward the targets. It presents an opportunity for Health and Human Services and other federal agency representatives to discuss barriers that stand in the way of achieving the targets and challenges them to explore strategies for moving the nation closer to meeting the goals for 2010. The Vision and Hearing Progress Review was held on October 20, 2004, and it addressed the objectives in Chapter 28: Vision & Hearing. What is the goal and what are the ten vision objectives to meet this goal? Goal: Improve the visual health of the nation through prevention, early detection, treatment, and rehabilitation. How are these 10 objectives used? Systematically collecting, analyzing, interpreting, disseminating, and using health data is essential to understanding the health status of a population, assessing progress, and planning effective prevention programs. Having specific objectives and definitions facilitates comparable measurement of these objectives by researchers from the national, state, and local government agencies, as well as those from private organizations. In short, this is exactly the kind of unifying role the NIH can and should take to advancing research and education related to improved health care. It has been an important step to have vision objectives included in the nation's targets for the most significant preventable threats to health. Some of our own Academy Fellows played a role in bringing Vision into the Healthy People objectives for the first time. Optometry is a strong partner in the Healthy Vision 2010 consortium that works to advance eye health in our neighborhoods and communities and through state and national programs and policies. Our national optometric organizations (including the Academy), state associations, and individual schools and colleges have committed to this consortium. The consortium works to ensure that information and resources are available to improve our nation's visual health. You can find out more about Healthy People 2010, Healthy Vision 2010, details of its progress, membership in the consortium, “evidenced based strategies” related to these objectives, definitions of terms, related objectives from other areas of health, linking your local or state association or institution (or their Web sites) to the consortium and its goals, and a whole host of other information by visiting the Healthy Vision Web site at: http://www.healthyvision2010.org/. Anthony J. Adams Editor-in-Chief Berkeley, California
Anthony J. Adams (Sat,) studied this question.