Partnership for Prevention Thursday hailed Congress’ inclusion of $1 billion for prevention and wellness programs in an economic stimulus package, as well as $1.1 billion to help doctors and patients determine the effectiveness of medical treatments.

 “This is the largest single infusion of additional resources ever made available to the U.S. public health system,” said Partnership Interim President Corinne G. Husten, MD, MPH. “While it wasn’t as much funding as we had hope for, it can still make a real difference in terms of jobs and programs to make America healthier.”

The final version of the stimulus bill hammered out by House-Senate conferees this week establishes a new Prevention and Wellness Fund, which will be used to fund key initiatives related to disease prevention and health promotion.

“This is consistent with one of Partnership’s recommendations to Congress, that a separate funding source be established to finance prevention initiatives,” Husten said.
The $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research is also a positive step, she said.

“Partnership for Prevention has already conducted research to determine the comparative effectiveness of clinical preventive services, and we are initiating a similar study of community preventive services,” Husten said. “But no one has systematically produced such information on medical services. Producing this data will put us in a better position to determine how Americans can get the best value for their health care dollar.”