Regional Experts Evaluate Nation's Health

Kansas City, MO – More than a hundred health experts from across the region gathered at KU Medical Center yesterday, to assess the nation's health and develop future goals.

The meeting was the first of only three being held across the country as part of the Department of Health and Human Services ten year evaluation of key health indicators, like exercise and chronic disease rates.

The project is known as Healthy People, and also involves collecting public testimony online.

Missouri health department director Margaret Donnelly was at the meeting and says health improvements in Missouri have been mixed over the past decade.

"We continue to have serious challenges in the area of smoking use, in the areas of obesity," Donnelly said. "But we also have seen some of the good trends in reductions in some of our rates of cancer, some of the rates of deaths from heart disease."

Donnelly says the state's seeking federal funding for community-based programs to better address its obesity and smoking problems.

HHS says the ten year assessment helps them better develop funding priorities.

Funding for health care coverage on KCUR has been provided by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

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