The development of American public health, a commentary: three documents that made an impact.

Arguably, three documents epitomize the development of the public health movement in the United States. The 1850 'Report of a General Plan for the Promotion of the Public and Personal Health of Massachusetts,' provided the theoretical and organizational basis for the development of an infrastructure for the American public health movement. The 1932 Report of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, 'Medical Care for the American People,' laid out a series of challenges for the humane, effective, and economical delivery of health and medical services to the American people, and the 1964 Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General on 'Smoking and Health' provided a paradigm of evidence-based public health policy. All three documents justified their conclusions on epidemiological evidence. Some may not agree that these documents are the most important to explain the American public health movement. Few, however, will disagree that they had an important impact.