One of the best things about Healthy People 2010 is the linkage between the conceptual approach to defining Public Health problems, and the diligent compilation of data being used to evaluate the progress being made towards resolving public health problems.

The Healthy People process has managed to keep up with the times and provides a realistic approach to identifying and solving Public Health problems, and is open to input from Public Health professionals and the general public.

For example, Healthy People 2000 set the national target of 100 per 100,000 coronary heart disease deaths for the U.S. It reset its goal to 166 per 100,000 for Healthy People 2010 because, as much as we would like to eliminate heart disease altogether, it is unrealistic to set such a low target, after reviewing whatever mortality data have been collected along the way.

Additional links to Healthy People 2010 and related sources can be found at: http://www.bettycjung.net/Hp2010.htm Healthy People 2010