Abstract
In this report, the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) present a one-day symposium that was held at the Institute to further disseminate the conclusions and recommendations of the Institute’s National Cancer Policy Board report, Fulfilling the Potential of Cancer Prevention and Early Detection. The symposium was led by the Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society, and the President of the IOM. In the morning plenary session of the symposium, they and five other senior representatives from academia, insurers, managed care, and government gave prepared presentations and participated in question and answer sessions with those attending this event. The presentations covered the potential of cancer prevention and early detection, the activities of the NCI and ACS, the perspectives and suggestions of private sector healthcare providers and payers, academics, and those addressing disparities in delivering services to disadvantaged populations. In the afternoon, group discussions with attendees and panels of 14 invited speakers from academia, IOM, ACS, CDC, NCI, AHRQAMA, CMS, the Washington Business Group on Health, UnitedHealth, National Center for Tobacco Free Kids, and the Annals of Internal Medicine were held on tobacco and obesity policy, payer/provider/managed care issues, applied research, and prevention through education and primary care.
A wrap-up session at the end summarized the issues raised, including: better support for tobacco and obesity campaigns; coordination of programs; joint approaches with the food industry; the need for an explicit consensus national tobacco and obesity strategy; viewpoints of payers; changing Medicare’s approach to prevention; private sector payment programs; improvements in applied research and dissemination of results; better science in programs; contributions from guidelines and accreditation; the roles of educa-
