Good Morning and Welcome-Mark Eppinger, Vice President and CEO, Annenberg Center for Health Sciences

Good morning, ladies and gentleman, and welcome to the Second Annual
conference on Partnerships for Networks and Consumer Health
Information.

On behalf of the Annenberg Center and Eisenhower Medical Center, we
are very pleased to be part of this conference with the Department
of Health and Human Services, and the Robert Warner Association, and
we would like very much to extend a warm welcome to our audience
here in the Annenberg Center and the many satellite sites who are
joining us this morning.

I was asked several times last night "Where we are?"  In addition to
being in the middle of the desert here with the hot sun that you all
are experiencing, we are on the campus of the Eisenhower Medical
Center which is an approximately 100 acre campus comprised of a 260-
bed acute care hospital, community hospital, Eisenhower Memorial
hospital.  The Betty Ford Center is here.  The Barbara Sinatra
Children's Center is here, and the Annenberg Center is the fourth
entity that comprises our campus.

As you are aware, the guiding light for this conference --
initiating and developing the conference -- has been the Office of
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the Department of Health
and Human Services.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you this morning Dr. Claude Earl
Fox who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of
Health and Human Services and the Director of the Office of Disease,
Prevention and Health Promotion.  As most of you are aware, ODPHP
is the office that coordinates not only healthy people through 2000,
but it also develops the guide to clinical practical services, and
also develops putting preventative into practice program.

What you may not be aware of is that ODPHP was initially created by
Congress as the office of health information and health promotion,
and was mandated initially to advance these two activities together;
and additionally was mandated to explore the intersection of health
information and the use of new technology.  We feel that this
conference is a natural extension of these activities, taking ODPHP
into the future.

Dr. Fox has had a strong background in public health.  Prior to his
position in  Health and Human Services in Washington, he was at the
top officer in Health and Human Services region 3 in Philadelphia.
Prior to that he was the state health official in Alabama.

Dr. Fox received his medical degree from the University of
Mississippi and  Master's degree in public health  from University
of North Carolina.  Please welcome Dr. Claude Earl Fox.