The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America Co-Chairs Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. and Alice M. Rivlin, Ph.D. will convene the Commission’s second field hearing in Philadelphia on October 2, as part of an effort to assess how living conditions affect the health of Americans. Mayor Michael Nutter will kick off the program, which will focus on how the contexts in which people live – physical and social conditions including homes and neighborhoods – directly impact health-related behaviors and overall health.

A large and growing body of research has shown that living conditions can have a powerful influence on health.At the field hearing, the Commissioners will learn more about how community attributes relate to how long and how well people live. Local and national experts will offer testimony about evidence-based, non-medical programs that aim to create healthier homes and communities by improving the built environment, creating safer neighborhoods and promoting nutrition and physical activity.

The 14-member national, independent, non-partisan Commission began its work in February, investigating how factors outside the health care system - such as access to healthful foods and housing - shape and affect opportunities to lead healthy lives.

The Philadelphia field hearing is the second of three public hearings the Commission will hold to examine different factors outside of the health care system that affect overall health.  In 2009, the Commission will recommend specific, feasible steps the private and public sector can take to improve the health of all Americans. The goal is to produce measurable improvements within years, not decades.

Commission Co-Chairs McClellan, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at The Brookings Institution and former FDA Commissioner and Administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Rivlin, senior economist at The Brookings Institution and former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, will be joined by a diverse group of innovators and experts who serve as the Commissioners for this project. For more information regarding the field hearing, please contact Danielle DeForge at (202) 609-6011 or via email at ddeforge@ccapr.com.
 
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