Fiscal year 1978 activities of the Bureau of Health Planning are presented in this annual report. The report is organized into areawide planning (e.g., health planning was established in 213 geographic regions, including 205 health service areas served by Health Systems Agencies and eight states, territories, and the District of Columbia); statewide planning (e.g., there are now 57 state health planning and development agencies); regulatory activities (e.g., as of October, 1978, 40 states had some kind of certificate of need program and 33 states were participating in the Section 1122 of Social Security Act programs); technical assistance (e.g., during Fiscal Year 1978, approximately 4,500 documents were added to the data base of the National Health Planning Information Center); national guidelines (e.g., the first set of National Guidelines for Health Planning were issued in final form on March 28, 1978); National Council (e.g., the National Council for Health Planning and Development became fully operational in Fiscal Year 1978, holding ten meetings during the year); program policy documents; the statutes (e.g., two health planning bills were introduced in Congress in Fiscal Year 1978); and looking ahead (e.g., in 1979 the Bureau will begin to implement an appropriations review program on a national basis). (JH)