Each month this year, KQED Public Radio's The California Report is hosting special statewide live discussions of health issues of importance to Californians. More than a dozen public radio stations statewide air these informative sessions, and many of them have added local programming of their own to this special project.

Our May 8th show topic was "Health Literacy." Program guests included Dr. Dean Shillinger, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California - San Francisco; Sheila Krigler, a breast cancer survivor and patient advocate; and Ann Monroe, Director of the Quality Initiative at the California HealthCare Foundation. Our special broadcast was part of Health Dialogues, an ambitious two-year special effort to look at California health issues, funded by The California Endowment.

As a California civic and legislative leader, you have made a commitment to examining and addressing health issues. One of your constituents called in with a question, which we think can be further illuminated with your ideas, suggestions and comments:

Victor from Bakersfield said that California needs a sensible way of allocating scarce health care dollars. He proposes evidence-based medicine as a guide. To him, funding health services supported by scientific evidence is a logical way to allocate resources; if studies do not indicate that a given service actually works, then it should be paid for personally by the patient. If Medi-Cal were to do this, there could be large cost savings. Dr. Schillinger noted that randomized, controlled trials only support one-fifth of all therapies. At a time when California plans to cut the public health budget, there is a need to do it in a sensible way. Why shouldn't evidence-based medicine help us make these tough choices? If it doesn't, how do we avoid making these cuts arbitrarily?

A number of other legislators have responded to questions like this. You can read them on our website. We would be pleased to add your observations to our web site -- particularly any responses to the question above. I invite you to join this lively discussion.

The aim of Health Dialogues is to facilitate a statewide discussion on important health issues -- a conversation that brings to the table (on air and via the World Wide Web) policy makers, state officials, private sector organizations, non-profits and everyday citizens affected by health issues and policies. We believe that your observations and ideas would enrich that conversation.

Sincerely,

Raul Ramirez, Director
News and Public Affairs
KQED Public Radio