A new national public health campaign is aiming to make sure you know your family’s history of disease.
The new project by the Office of the Surgeon General is called the “Family History Initiative.”
The innovative and easy to use website asks users to fill in a few short questions about immediate relatives’ health history, which is information that can then be taken to your primary healthcare provide to help them help you.
“There’s an old saying with family history – you can either repeat it or treat it,” said Dr. Ivan Schaller, an internal medicine specialist at the Marshfield Clinic’s Wausau Center.
Doctors say the more they know about possible genetic diseases in your family, the easier it will be for them to prevent you from getting the same diseases.
You can link up to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative by clicking on the link below.