The US Surgeon General's Family History Initiative

Health care professionals have long known that diseases both common (like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes) and rare (like hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia) often run in families. Tracing the diseases that parents, grandparents, and other relatives have can help health professionals predict the disorders for which their patients may be at risk and, even more importantly, take action to keep them and their families healthy. Although family history cannot be changed, knowledge of it provides an opportunity to personalize and target a myriad of disease prevention and health promotion actions. Knowing your family history truly can save your life.

Since clinical practice today offers little time to collect, let alone analyze and utilize, family health history, the U.S. Surgeon General's Family History Initiative enables American families to collect information about their family health history in advance of visiting their health care professional. To aid in the collection of family history information, the Surgeon General has developed an electronic and paper collection tool (available in both English and Spanish) entitled "My Family Health Portrait." The information recoded can be shared with a health care professional to develop an individualized prevention program.

Family events, such as Thanksgiving, other holidays, or family reunions, are wonderful opportunities to gather family history. During this holiday season, visit the Surgeon General's Family History website to learn more about the tools available and to download the "My Family Health Portrait" tool.