Effort should be made to support the sharing of expertise and practices at the local level. In this regard, it will be important to establish strong public health institutions with national influence to develop strategic policy objectives and assess policy options. This need for strong public health institutions is heightened in Switzerland where cantons are of varying sizes and hence have varying capacities for policy development. Health information systems are currently limited and information on key indicators is too often left to the initiative of willing parties or health service providers.