Leading Health Indicators

The Ten Year Plan

Unknown to many there are federal guidelines as to how federal funds are spent. The National Academies of Medicine advisory committee released their list of priority areas for medicine whose goals are for 2030.  The NAM has provided this list since 1979.

Beginning in 1979 and in each subsequent decade, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has overseen the Healthy People initiative to set national goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention. The Healthy People effort also informs public health planning and measurement at the state and local levels.

The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health charged The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine with assisting in the development of Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) for Healthy People 2030. To accomplish this task, the National Academies convened a consensus committee to provide advice on two components of the Healthy People 2030 effort. The committee was asked to develop (1) recommendations regarding the criteria for selecting LHIs and (2) a slate of LHIs that will serve as options for the Healthy People Federal Interagency Workgroup to consider as they develop the final criteria and set of LHIs for Healthy People 2030. The committee also could identify gaps and recommend new objectives for LHI consideration that meet the core objective criteria. The report Criteria for Selecting the Leading Health Indicators, released in August 2019, responded to part 1 of the charge. The committee’s response to part 2 is found in the present report.

Download the report here.