Conversations On Health Care

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Yulun Wang, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of InTouch Health. Dr. Wang launched his career at the intersection of healthcare and technology with the founding of Computer Motion, Inc. and the invention of AESOP, the first FDA-cleared surgical robot. Under his leadership, Computer Motion went public in 1997 and later merged with Intuitive Surgical to forge the multi-billion dollar surgical robotics industry. In 2002, Dr. Wang founded InTouch Health, which has been recognized as one of the fastest growing healthcare and technology companies in the world.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with John Nosta, founder and president of Nostalab, a digital health think tank. Mr. Nosta, is also a member of the Google Health Advisory Board and looks at the coming digital health trends, nanotechnology and genomics that are going to transform health outcomes of the future.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Adriel Bettelheim, Managing Editor for Health at CQ Roll Call/Economist which boasts the largest press corps on Capitol Hill. Mr. Bettelheim discusses the legislative landscape impacting the Affordable Care Act as well as the emerging payment reforms aimed at reducing health care spending.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Sara Collins, PhD, Vice President of Health Care Coverage and Access at the Commonwealth Fund, a non-partisan foundation dedicated to promoting a high-functioning health care system. Dr. Collins discusses the Fund's recent report showing a marked improvement in the reduction of the uninsured in America since the first open enrollment and the increased utilization of health care among the previously uninsured.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with cardiologist, genomics and telemedicine expert Dr. Eric Topol, Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. They discuss his latest book, The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine Is In Your Hands, in which he predicts the "medicalization of the smart phone" is poised to truly democratize medicine by putting the power of diagnostics and monitoring in the patient's own hands.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Steven Brill, journalist, entrepreneur, and author of Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Back-Room Deals, and the Fight to Fix our Broken Healthcare System. Mr. Brill's work has made national headlines upon its recent release, contending that the American healthcare system is woefully inadequate despite the country's $3 trillion dollar expenditure which outpaces than the next 10 biggest spenders combined.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Esther Dyson, a former journalist and Wall Street technology analyst who is a leading angel investor, philanthropist, and commentator focused on breakthrough efficacy in healthcare, government transparency, digital technology, biotechnology, and space.

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, Pediatrician and Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at the Milken School of Public Health at George Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Mullan discusses a recent Institute of Medicine report which outlines the need for rethinking 21st century graduate medical education to better reflect shifting health care landscape.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Tejal Gandhi, President and CEO of the National Patient Safety Foundation and the Lucian Leape Institute. She discusses the NPSF's commitment to insuring no harm comes to health care providers as well as patients. She also talks about advancements in reducing medical mistakes, including prescribing errors and hospital acquired infections which lead to an estimated 100 thousand deaths per year.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Erik Viirre. Dr. Viirre is the Medical and Technical Director of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE and the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE. His primary appointment is Adjunct Professor in the UCSD Departments of Neurosciences, Surgery and Cognitive Science. His clinical specialties are vertigo, balance problems and tinnitus.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Benjamin Sommers. Dr. Sommers is a health economist and physician whose primary research interests are the uninsured, Medicaid, and medical decision-making. He was honored with the 2006 National Dissertation Award by AcademyHealth, a preeminent national association of health policy and health services researchers. Dr. Sommers also served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2011-2012. His current research projects focus on barriers to health care access among low-income adults, Medicaid policy, and national health reform.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Marci Neilsen, CEO of the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative, which seeks to promote the growth of better primary care through the development of Patient Centered Medical Homes.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Peter Basch, a Senior Fellow for Health IT Policy with the Center for American Progress, and a Visiting Scholar with the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform of the Brookings Institution. He represents the American College of Physicians at the Physicians' EHR Coalition, which he co-founded in 2004. He is currently serving on the Quality Measures Workgroup of the HIT Policy Committee. Dr. Basch is also a recipient of the HIMSS Physician IT Leadership Award. Dr. Basch speaks to an issue that plagues many clinicians in practice: adhering to Meaninful Use requirements set forth in the HITECH Act and associated regulations.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, Associate Director for Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Srinivasan is a prominent spokesman for the CDC's response to the Ebola crisis, as well as an expert on the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which has killed an estimated 75 thousand Americans through hospital acquired infections.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Jacquelyn Campbell, PHD, RN, National Program Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Faculty Scholars Program, and an expert in domestic violence issues. Dr. Campbell talks about the need for primary care clinicians and other health professionals to spot the signs of domestic abuse. As one of the world's leading experts, she has developed the diagnostic tool now widely used by clinicians, law enforcement and abuse counselors to assess the risk of lethal harm for victims.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Eric Green, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, one of the 27 Institutes at NIH. They have launched a new program called Big Data to Knowledge, or BD2K, which seeks to create better platforms for storing and sharing the large volumes of big data that have emerged in the world of scientific research since the mapping of the human genome. Dr. Green also talks about the threats to future research from young scientists struggling to achieve in a climate of reduced grant funding nationwide.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Robin Guenther, Principal of Perkins+Will and Senior Advisor to Health Care Without Harm. Healthcare Design magazine named her the "#1 Most Influential Designer in Healthcare" in 2010. She co-coordinated the Green Guide for Health Care and co-released the second edition of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture in May 2013. Ms. Guenther has also received the Center for Health Design's Changemaker Award for her leadership and innovation in the design of healing environments.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Indu Subaiya, Co-Chairman & CEO of Health 2.0, an annual leading showcase of the cutting-edge technologies transforming health and healthcare. Ms. Subaiya is responsible for Health 2.0's strategic direction and production values. She started her career in health technology assessment at Quorum Consulting and then served as VP of Healthcare at Gerson Lehrman Group, an investment research firm. When she is not running Health 2.0, she applies her producing and directing skills to making film. In 2013 Indu introduced us to the 7 Deadly Sins of Health Care and this year she will share what she has learned from her investigation into data sources that support a variety of health disparities across the United States.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Russell Branzell, CEO of the College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME), about being on the front lines of tackling health care's IT issues for hospitals' and providers' Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Carolyn Miles, President & Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children. Save the Children is the leading independent organization inspiring breakthroughs in how the world treats children, achieving immediate and lasting change in their lives. The global Save the Children movement currently serves over 143 million children in the US and in 120 countries. During her senior leadership tenure, the organization has more than doubled the number of children it reaches with nutrition, health, education and other programs. Resources have gone from $250m to almost $700m, with 89.4% spent on programs for children. Carolyn has focused on hunger, learning outcomes, and ending preventable child deaths as her signature issues.