ng

* 86*
UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA

William L. Kissick, ©M.D., Dr.P.H.

George Seckel Pepper Professor of Reply to:

Public Health and Preventive Medicine Department of Research Medicine
School of Medicine NEB-2L/Room 224

Professor of Health Care Systems Philadelphia, PA 19104-6020

The Wharton School 215-898-6385

June 14, 1991

Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.

Director, National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
Department of Health and Human Services
Bethesda, Maryland 20894

Dear Dr. Lindberg:

Thank you for your letter of May 28 inviting me to participate in the
December 6, 1991 symposium on Regional Medical Programs. Having participated
extensively in its conceptualization and drafting along with Ed Dempsey and
Bill Stewart, I would be delighted to participate in a retrospective.

Your invitation has provoked me to review some of my files and reports of
the President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke and other {Hct
materials related to the legislation. Enclosed is a copy of an article

published in 1965 that records an effort to disseminate our concept. I had

the privilege of visiting with Vern Wilson in 1969 and learning firsthand of

your work at the University of Missouri.

In the late 1960s we thought that Regional Medical Programs was "An idea
whose time has come." Now I ask, "Where are Regional Medical Programs now
that we need them?" Without them, I am increasingly of the conviction that
126 academic health centers are at risk. Once primary care locks-up health
care financing with capitated prepayment, as I think it shall, I see academic
health center sitting in isolated vulnerability. I retain a significant
commitment to the concept of Regional Medical Programs.

Best reg : Ly

William L. Kissick, M.D., Dr.P.H.