Twenty-Two Health Promotion Pioneers

Koop was 13th Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989.Although he is most widely known among Americans for his years being the surgeon general, the vast bulk of Koop's career was spent as a practicing physician.While a surgeon in Philadelphia, Koop performed groundbreaking surgical procedures on conjoined twins, invented techniques that today are commonly used for infant surgery, and saved the lives of countless children who otherwise might have been allowed to die.We remember Dr. Koop for three facets of his work: Abortion: Though Koop was philosophically opposed to abortion on personal and religious grounds, he declined to state that abortion procedures performed by qualified medical professionals posed a substantial health risk to the women whose pregnancies were being terminated, despite political pressure to endorse such a position.Tobacco: In 1984, Dr. Koop wrote that nicotine has addictiveness similar to that of heroin or cocaine.Koop's report was somewhat unexpected, especially by those who expected him to maintain the status quo in regard to his office's position on tobacco products.Koop also instituted the practice of requiring rotated health warning labels on cigarette packs and required advertising to include the labels, although some warnings had been required since 1965.AIDS: Dr. Koop wrote the official U.S. policy on the disease and took unprecedented action in mailing AIDS information to every U.S. household. Applying Dr. Koop's IdeasDr. Koop epitomized the importance of science in policy making, especially in a partisan political climate.Although Dr. Koop was a conservative Republican with strong religious beliefs, his public pronouncements were loud, clear, and evidence-based.To this day, he is still the individual most remembered as the nation's doctor.Significantly, Dr. Koop was a strong proponent of health promotion, never failing to remind his audiences that modifiable health behaviors exert a significant influence on the onset of acute and chronic diseases.Dr. Koop's influence is still felt today: he founded The Health Project (www.thehealthproject.com), which each year awards the Koop Prize to organizations that have improved population health and saved money and have the data to support their accomplishments.