Circulation Increases Sharply For Med School Health Letter; Rise Attributed to H.U. Press

A direct mail campaign and other recent promotional activities have pushed the circulation of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter from 19,000 in January 1977 to 130,000 today.

The Medical School's Department of Continuing Education publishes the monthly health letter for individuals and corporations that distribute copies to employees.

"Its purpose is to provide accurate, readable and useful information for the layman," Dr. Stephen E. Goldfinger, associate dean of Continuing Education at the Medical School, said yesterday.

The rapid rise in subscription rates occurred after the Harvard University Press took over publication of the Health Letter and supplied better distribution and publicity facilities, Goldfinger said.

Another factor in the increase "is the tremendous current interest on the part of the public for solid, reliable health information," he added.

The Health Letter does not advise readers on health matters but reports on new medical trends and health issues that become the focus of media attention, Goldfinger said.

"Too often the health topics that are dramatically expressed in the press do not reflect sound medical reasoning," Dr. B. Thomas Hutchinson, assistant clinical professor at the Medical School and a member of the Health Letter's advisory board, said yesterday.

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"The Health Letter shows the individual the sort of things he should be thinking about his health that he can't get out of Reader's Digest and similar publications," Hutchinson said.