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FIAT LUX CALIFORNIA POLICY RESEARCH CENTER UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY DAVIS IRVINE LOS ANGELES RIVERSIDE SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SANTA BARBARA SANTA CRUZ February 2, 1999 Maria Echaveste Deputy Chief of Staff The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear Ms. Echaveste Maria The San Francisco Chronicle reported in its January 28 edition the First Lady's imminent announcement of the first-ever comprehensive, administration-wide strategy to combat asthma, featuring the President's fiscal year 2000 initiatives designed to attack childhood asthma and increase pediatric training to manage asthma. We would like to share with you our August 1998 report that formulated a strategy for combating asthma in California, in the hope that it may inform the planning and/or implementation of the President's initiatives. The report was drawn from a conference (co- sponsored with the California Department of Health Services) that featured national and state asthma experts. Asthma in California: Laying the Foundation for a Statewide Strategy surveys the natural history and epidemiology of asthma, particularly in California; risk factors for asthma at all stages of life; and interventions to prevent and manage the disease. Its overall strategy comprises 14 specific recommendations to policymakers concerning research, asthma surveillance, health services, community programs, and provider and patient education, and calls for guidelines on promoting improved interventions in face of the rising numbers of asthma cases. While the CPRC report was intended to contribute to the development of more effective policies and programs to prevent and manage asthma in California, I hope you will find it useful at the federal level as well. Sincerely, Andus I hope you're holding up well. Andrés Jiménez Give 'em hell! Director Universitywide Headquarters: CPRC 1950 Addison Street Suite 202 Berkeley California 94704-1182 tel: 510/642-5514 fax: 642-8793 e-mail: [email protected] web: http://www.ucop.edu/cprc