Wales owes Jane considerable gratitude for the commitment put into establishing the Office and undertaking the Culyer Declaration in 1996. She continued to work on the documentation for the grant schemes, training programmes and new strategic framework for health. We have no doubt that Jane will have much to contribute in her new role and wish her every happiness and success in her future career. In this information age professionals may be faced with patients who, through the Internet, have more information about their conditions than is available to the professional. This requires professionals to have a new attitude to partnership with patients in searching for information to guide the most appropriate management.
Care has to strike a balance between the needs and rights of both the individual and society.
This is represented by the diagram which shows the effects of altering the threshold for intervention on both the risk of harm to the individual and cost to society. The wider negotiations about the nature of such intervention thresholds is one for public involvement in all parts of the administrative structure of health care. How this should best be done is not as simple as it would first appear and work is continuing to explore how this policy should be implemented. At the heart is the informed interest of the public and a relationship of mutual respect between patients and professionals in making choices in health issues. The first grant was awarded in July 1996 to Dr Sue Jordan, University of Wales, Swansea.