The Luther L. Terry Senior Fellowship
in Preventive Medicine

Luther L. Terry Senior Fellow serves as the Senior Clinical Advisor in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), which is located within the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The mission of ODPHP is to provide leadership, coordination, and support for disease prevention and health promotion activities, programs, policies, and information for the Department of Health and Human Services through collaboration with HHS agencies and other partners in prevention, nation-wide. The fellowship is two years in duration and is intended for preventive medicine-trained physicians, although other primary care physicians with a Masters in Public Health or equivalent degree are eligible.

Background

The Luther L. Terry Senior Fellowship in Preventive Medicine provides intensive experience in a health policy setting while the fellow benefits ODPHP by providing clinical, research, and population health expertise in order to support the Department's health promotion and disease prevention goals. This fellowship provides a critical link between ODPHP and the medical and public health communities and offers a physician valuable experience in health policy development and implementation. The fellow is selected by a committee composed of representatives from ODPHP and several academic medical associations/societies representing the academic disciplines that have a role in identifying the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to integrate preventive medicine with medical education and practice.

Luther Leonidas Terry, for whom the fellowship is named, was Surgeon General of the Public Health Service from 1961 to 1965. During his tenure in this position, Dr. Terry established and chaired the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, which produced the first Surgeon General's report on the relationship between smoking and health. The report, Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, concluded that lung cancer and chronic bronchitis are causally related to cigarette smoking. This landmark Surgeon General's report on smoking and health stimulated increased concern about tobacco on the part of the American public and government policy makers and led to a broad-based anti-smoking campaign. The report was also responsible for the passage of the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 which, among other things, mandated the familiar Surgeon General's health warnings on cigarette packages. Dr. Terry's pioneering research on the health hazards of cigarette smoking serves as a model for the work of all Luther Terry Fellows at ODPHP. Similar to Dr. Terry, the fellow uses his or her medical background to help influence disease prevention and health promotion policy on a national level.

Although specific projects for the Luther Terry Fellow depend on the activities within ODPHP during the fellow's appointment, a description of the activities of previous fellows indicates the scope and breadth of the fellow's work.

Selected activities of the eleventh Luther Terry Fellow included working with the Office of the Surgeon General on the “Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future” Childhood Overweight and Obesity Prevention Initiative, representing ODPHP on the HHS Public Health Systems Working Group and the HHS Interagency Work Group on Multiple Chronic Conditions, participating in the development of Healthy People 2020, and serving as ODPHP’s liaison to the US Preventive Services Task Force and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Previous fellows have addressed issues such as clinical preventive services guidelines and strategies for their incorporation into practice, school health initiatives, and evaluation of the preventive practices of primary care providers. Fellows have also participated in the HHS Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health, development of Healthy People 2010, coordination of HHS agencies on the Pfeisteria investigation in Eastern coastal waterways, promotion of adult immunizations, and increasing the emphasis on disease prevention and health promotion in the medical school curriculum.

In addition to specific projects, the Luther Terry Fellow is a key person within HHS to support ODPHP in:

• Developing policy papers for the Department
• Making presentations to interest groups and legislators
• Providing technical expertise, clinical experience and research analysis applied to various public health issues
• Developing briefing materials for the Secretary of HHS, the Assistant Secretary for Health, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health
• Serving as ODPHP’s representative on interagency and interdepartmental collaborations, including prevention-related health reform initiatives.

The Luther Terry Fellow also oversees the Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Scholarship Program and is primarily responsible for the training of fellows, residents and public health interns as they rotate through ODPHP. He/she serves as a mentor and provides them the opportunity to work with leading experts in the field of disease prevention and health promotion.

The Luther Terry Fellowship provides an unparalleled opportunity for professional growth and development as a national figure in both prevention policy and medical education. The fellowship is an excellent opportunity for a physician to gain substantial health policy experience, as the fellow is engaged in policy development and decision making at the highest levels within the Department of Health and Human Services. The fellow has frequent contact with the public health community and gains substantial insight into the operations and interactions of its constituent members.

For information about applying to this fellowship program, visit http://www.aptrweb.org or contact the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, Training Projects Assistant, 1001 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 610, Washington, DC 20036; phone: (202) 463-0550; E-mail: info@aptrweb.org
 

Updated October 07, 2009