Message to the Congress Transmitting the Surgeon General's First Report on Regional Medical Programs.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am happy to send to you the Surgeon General's first report on Regional Medical Programs, as required by the Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke Amendments of 1965.

Because the law and the idea behind it are new, and the problem is so vast, the program is just emerging from the planning stage. But this report gives encouraging evidence of progress--and it promises great advances in speeding research knowledge to the patient's bedside.

In 49 regions covering 91 percent of our population, regional alliances have been formed between medical schools, hospitals and local doctors. $24 million in Federal planning money has been awarded. By early 1968, we hope to have programs underway covering 98 percent of the Nation's population.

Most important, the imagination, knowledge and energy to operate these programs will come from the local level. More than 1600 local health leaders--physicians, officials of medical centers, hospital administrators, teachers and other health workers-are active as members of Regional Advisory Groups.

In five regions, cooperative medical programs are already operating, with the help of $7.3 million in Federal grants:

--the Albany Region, covering northeastern New York, and portions of southern Vermont and western Massachusetts;

--the Intermountain Region, covering Utah and parts of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming;

--the states of Kansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

These areas are reporting important results already.

In the Intermountain Region, for example, physicians in community hospitals are now linked by special radio and television networks with experts at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

In Wisconsin, doctors are making special studies of uterine cancer patients, with the hope of improving and standardizing treatment methods.

The Missouri region is pioneering new services in the Smithville area where doctors and patients benefit from computer-assisted X-ray diagnosis and other advanced techniques which may some day be available in the entire region.

Progress is being made and I believe these programs will help us overcome the dreaded killer diseases--heart, cancer and stroke. And they will put us farther along the road to our goal of modern medical care for every American citizen.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

November 8, 1967