Disruptive Women is pleased to make Dr. Steven Wartman,  President and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centers, our August Man-of-the-Month. He sat down with Disruptive Women’s Wendy Grossman in his office to talk about the Association of Academic Health Centers’ work on Capitol Hill, health reform, his new blog, missing students and patients, and why he became a doctor.

Q: Tell me about AAHC and your work in Washington DC.

A: First, let me start by describing what constitutes an “academic health center.” It is an accredited, degree-granting university that consists of a medical school, one or more other health professions schools (such as nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, allied health, etc), and a relationship with a teaching hospital or health system. Examples in the immediate DC area include: George Washington, Georgetown, Howard, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. In addition to their missions of health professions education, patient care, and research, academic health centers are also economic engines for their communities and often are among the largest employers in their region. And the products from their research have a lot of value in the commercial world, leading to the development of new treatments.

Q: What’s the most important thing you’ve done since you’ve been AAHC’s President?

A: Set a strategic direction for the organization.

Q: Which is what?

A: Our strategic direction is based on three founding principles: in all we do, we wish to strengthen, advocate and lead on behalf of the nation’s academic health centers. Specifically, in addition to general advocacy, we’ve prioritized three main areas: the organization and management of these highly complex enterprises (whose budgets often run into the billions), the health professions workforce (having enough of the kinds and types of health professionals that the nation needs), and the regulatory environment (trying to harmonize the numerous regulations that impact academic health centers in their mission areas of education, patient care, and research). As one example of the impact of regulation, we’re actively involved in assuring that clinical trials, which are critical for testing new therapies and procedures, can be conducted efficiently with proper protection of patients.

Q: How has your job changed since President Obama took office?

A: Well, to no one’s surprise, health care in terms of health care reform became front and center. We’re pleased to be actively engaged in this important issue and part of the policy discussions.

Q: Tell me about your new blog.

A: Elaine Rubin, our Vice President, and I started a blog called HealthPROSe because we wanted to be part of the important health conversations taking place. What we’re trying to do with our blog is to engage persons in the blogosphere as to how vital the nation’s academic health centers are to the health system and any health care reform. HealthPROSe is decidedly not addressing health care in terms of “what-do-I-do-if-I-get-sick?” But rather how academic health centers can positively impact the health system through the education of the next generation of medical professionals, the conducting of biomedical and clinical effectiveness research, and the delivery of comprehensive patient care, especially in the context where these institutions are the health care safety nets for their communities.

Q: Safety nets? How so?

A: Often academic health centers have the most advanced therapies and also serve as providers for the uninsured and underinsured.

Q: What do you think are the most important things that need to happen in health care reform?

A: I’m very much in support of universal coverage because, fundamentally, a health system should ensure access to every citizen. As a nation, we need to be sure that our citizens have the confidence and security that, should they have the misfortune of falling ill or being in an accident, they will be well taken care of and won’t be financially disabled as a result.

Q: So what do you think is actually going to happen with health care reform?

A: I’m guessing there will be a compromise that will take a step toward universal coverage and more careful regulation of the insurance industry. Whether there will be more than that is impossible to say at this point.

Q: Where were you before you came to Washington DC?

A: Prior to coming to DC, I was Executive Vice President for Academic and Health Affairs, and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. I left my tenured faculty position to come to Washington because I thought it was a privilege to work for academic health centers on the national level.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: For the association? I don’t think the health reform issue is going to end anytime soon, and, regardless, academic health centers will always play a vitally important role in health care. With or without the passage of significant health reform legislation, we’re going to be very, very active. We will continue to be the thought leader for academic health centers as our nation’s health care needs and delivery system continue to evolve. We are also developing an active international program as the world becomes increasingly globalized.

Q: Do you miss seeing patients?

A: Yes.

Q: What do you miss?

A: The interaction and opportunity to change things for the better for patients and their families. Throughout my career, until the present, I tried to be clinically active. For example, when I was Dean in San Antonio, I would work with medical students and residents at a community clinic.

Q: Why did you go into medicine in the first place?

A: I think that it was because of my father.

Q: Was he a doctor, too?

A: No, he wasn’t. His dream was to be a doctor. He applied to medical school in the 1930s and didn’t get accepted despite being an honors student and having a full athletic scholarship for football and baseball.

Q: Why? Because of the quotas?

A: Precisely. He never pressured me to go to medical school, but I’m sure it was in the back of my mind. He became a small businessman in Philadelphia and, although he is now deceased, I think in part that my interest in medicine came from him. I’m grateful that it did.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 9:09 am and is filed under Man of the Month. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.