Population Health Colloquium--MARCH 2011

As the nation comes to grip with all the implications of Health Reform, and a renewed interest in work site wellness, prevention, care coordination and value based purchasing, the School of Population Health is presenting a forum to explore all of these issues. The Population Health Colloquium is a three day event co-located with two sister conferences on the Medical Home and Palliative Care set for March 13, 14, 15 and 16 in Philadelphia. Our School will also be conducting a pre conference work shop on the fundamentals of Population Health with lectures by four of our leading faculty members. Our special Sunday night March 13th "Book Event" is a great opportunity to meet more than half a dozen nationally prominent authors who will discuss their recent books, sign copies, and take questions from the audience about their work in health care. Our kick off speaker, Dr Nancy Snyderman, is the Chief Medical Correspondent for NBC National News and herself, an expert on care coordination, patient empowerment, and prevention. I am hoping to see scores of readers at our Colloquium and look forward to the ensuing dialogue. For more information go to www.populationhealthcolloquium.com. See you then!!

STATE of the UNION

The President clearly wants to "get moving" on reform of the health care system but tonight was not the night for any details. This is a fight that he will not back away from but he is calling a sort of time out if you will, a chance for tempers to cool and to re-examine the fundamentals. From his perspective those fundamentals include covering the uninsured, protecting Medicare, ending insurance company "abuses" and not raising the deficit any further. To me, we are back to square one---no discussion about improving the value of our investment , no attempt to focus on wellness and prevention, no talk of comparative effectiveness research so that we are making decisions based on good science and no mention of expanding primary care. Our School of Population Health cannot take a "time out"---in fact, we are pushing ahead each and every day. We will get many of our key courses on line by September 2010 and go from a regional school to a global one. We will launch the first of its kind Masters Degree in Chronic Care Management so that our graduates will be ready to tackle the Accountable Care Organization of the future. We will educate leaders to reduce the fourth leading cause of death in the nation---medical error!! We are MOVING now, we will not wait, we will "get the job done". I hope our elected leaders will follow us soon. Thanks and tell me what you think about reform too. DAVID NASH