"We need to engage more people in creating health," he said. "The answer is not piling more and more responsibility on the practicing physician. ... Employers, families, elected leaders, individuals — they all have responsibility for health."

One challenge, he said, is that while there was no dearth of people in the 1960s vying to be astronauts and thus national heroes, it's a little harder to attract national public health heroes. But "the only way it works is if everyone gets involved."

And he warned that the components of the current health reform debate — cost, quality and access — are "important, but inadequate." Limiting it to that is "akin to arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

Effort right now is focused on getting the presidential candidates to sign on to the concept. After the election is when the real work begins, he said, adding "the real opportunity is in the transition period."

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com