The idea for the Health Project began in 1992 when Dr. Roger Porter, Assistant to President George H. W. Bush, threw out the challenge to reduce America’s health costs by keeping people healthy in the first place. With the support of Dr. Porter and the White House, Carson E. Beadle and Daniel W. Wright set out to find health related programs that could scientifically establish that they reduced health care costs by improving the health of their participants. Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General, known widely as the ‘nation’s doctor’ accepted their invitation to become Honorary Chair and allow the awards to be offered in his name. The genesis of The Health Project was the early recognition that the United States could not sustain its rate of increase in health costs indefinitely. Today, The Health Project continues its mission to recognize private and public health initiatives, which have improved measurably the health status of Americans.