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FORUM CDC Director Points Up Health Care's Global Agenda At a moment when political and cultural differences appear to be fracturing the globe, health care has never been more unified in its purpose--that was the message delivered by Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an address at HMS on Feb. 13. The spread of infectious diseases from developing to developed countries and the opposite movement of unhealthy habits like smoking and reliance on cars is creating, from a medical standpoint, an increasingly homogeneous planet. The CDC's Jeffrey Koplan Photo by Steve Gilbert "Health care workers around the world increasingly have a common agenda," Koplan said. The address was the first in the 2002 Policy Roundtable Series, sponsored by the Harvard Health Caucus at Harvard Medical School. A graduate student organization dedicated to exploring the interdisciplinary nature of health policy, the caucus has planned this year's series around applying the knowledge of trends in globalization to improve the health of people worldwide. The next lecture will take place on Feb. 25 at the Kennedy School and will feature a panel discussion on economics and health, moderated by Harvard president Lawrence Summers.