U.S. Surgeon General Visits San Mateo and Burlingame

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin visited San Mateo and Burlingame Tuesday, touring medical facilities and addressing community leaders on her goals and vision as the nation's top doctor.

Invited by the Mills-Peninsula African American Community Health Advisory Committee (AACHAC), Benjamin began the morning learning about the group, which identifies and addresses health concerns affecting San Mateo County, especially its African American community members, through collaboration with Mills-Peninsula Health Services.

She then spoke at Burlingame’s in front of a crowd of more than 250 people, focusing on her priorities as surgeon general and on every person’s ability to make a difference in public health, before continuing on to tour Innovative Care Clinic.

During her talk, Dr. Benjamin stressed that caring for people is more than healing or medicating, but taking a look at all the factors in a person’s life — a lesson she learned while practicing in a small Alabama fishing town, where she “learned that my patients had problems that my prescription pad by itself wasn’t enough.” She noted the effects of Hurricane Katrina, unclean drinking water and illiteracy as other health obstacles her patients faced.

Benjamin said that while giving Americans health coverage is a step in the right direction, it stops short of solving problems like the ones she saw, and these health disparities need closer examination.

“People might not realize, being born an African American child, your risk of certain things is higher, and something is causing this,” she said. “We need to figure out what it is and bring it to equity.”

Social determinants — factors such as where people live, exposure to certain advertisements, prevalence of violence and proximity to affordable, healthy food — all impact health, she said. Benjamin said studies show poverty has just as large a health impact as smoking or heavy drinking.

The remarks corresponded to Benjamin’s overall mission of preventative care.

“Prevention is the foundation of our nation’s health system,” she said. “I’ve seen so many missed opportunities for prevention.”

As part of her preventative efforts, Benjamin outlined six main areas of public health she aims to improve. The first is obesity — primarily childhood obesity. She has been walking different parts of the country, including Los Angeles, Boston and even the Grand Canyon, to emphasize the importance of exercise.

“The idea is that if I can do it, anybody can,” she said. “All it is is a walk.”

Benjamin, who lost her mother to lung cancer, will also focus on smoking and tobacco, and produced a 700-page report on how smoking causes cancer and why it is addictive.

“Smoking and tobacco is every surgeon general’s priority, and it’s mine, as well,” she said. She commended California’s strict tobacco and smoking laws.

Another issue close to Benjamin’s heart is HIV/AIDS; she watched her brother and many of his friends die due to the disease.

“There was such a loss to society of all these young people,” she said. “We tend to forget that people are still dying today.” She is concerned with the growing number of girls and woman with HIV/AIDS.

Other priorities include encouraging breast feeding, which has numerous health benefits for both babies and their mothers; addressing mental health issues, especially in conjunction with substance abuse; and preventing violence and youth violence, which Benjamin said has climbed to the level of a public health issue.

She supports new health care legislation, and told the story of President John Adams creating a series of public hospitals after an outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia and the creation of the Public Health Services Commissioned Corps, which Benjamin oversees today.

“I tell you that because that’s an example of what strong leadership from a president can do to address the acute health care needs of a county,” she said. “And that’s what President Obama is doing with health reform.” The Commissioned Corps has grown since Adams' day, and now has teams on standby to respond to health emergencies.

Benjamin continues her Bay Area tour in Berkeley and San Francisco later this week.