CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner addressing Care Innovations Summit attendees. Image courtesy of Kaiser Health News.

“I think we would all agree that these are not ordinary times, that this is not an ordinary conference, nor is it an ordinary time in health care,” commented Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, in her address at the first ever Care Innovations Summit Thursday. In saying so, Tavenner captured not only the essence of the problems facing our nation’s health care system and the reason that over a thousand national thought leaders, senior government officials and industry experts had gathered, but also inspiring attendees with the idea that, by being there, they had the opportunity to be a part of the solution.

Driving the day at the Care Innovations Summit, which was hosted by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), Health Affairs and the West Wireless Health Institute, was the notion that American innovation could solve any problem, and the thousand-plus attendees were the innovators to solve this one. Emphasizing CMMI’s founding mission of better health, better care and lower costs, speakers across sectors, industries and areas of expertise continued to echo each other’s cries that it was all possible, if people began collaborating and innovating across fields.

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Gruber, director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, explains the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in comic book format

Millions of Americans disapprove of the Affordable Care Act without understanding what the act aims to accomplish or how it works.  Dr. Jonathan Gruber’s book “Health Care Reform:  What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works” breaks down the individual components of the act in order to give Americans a greater understanding of what all it includes and how its provisions will affect their daily lives.  Gruber discussed the book, ACA and the future of health care reform in the United States with an audience at Disruptive Women in Washington, DC last night.

Continue reading here…

January’s Man of the Month, Dr. Jonathan Gruber will be speaking tonight at our event on health care reform. Dr. Gruber is a Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992.  He is also the Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is a Research Associate.  He is a co-editor of the Journal of Public Economics, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Economics.

For more information on the event click here. We have reached capacity, but will be tweeting from the event so follow disruptivewomen for all the latest. Also, check back tomorrow for a post summarizing the night’s event.

The event will feature his new book: Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works.

The following was originally posted on NPR’s SHOTS on January 10th. On January 17th Disruptive Women in Health Care will be hosting a Health Reform Discussion with MIT Health Economist Dr. Jonathan Gruber and will be featuring his new book: Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works.

By Michelle Andrews. Health care reform is no laughing matter, but MIT economist Jonathan Gruber’s new comic book on the subject aims to communicate some pretty complicated policy details in a way that, if not exactly side-splitting, is at least engaging.

In Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works, Gruber steps into the pages of a comic book to guide readers through many of the major elements of the law, including the individual mandate to buy insurance, the health insurance exchanges where people will be able to buy coverage starting in 2014 and how the law tackles controlling health care costs.

He ought to know. Gruber helped develop the Massachusetts health overhaul law and advised the Obama administration on the federal version.

Gruber says he was eager to write a book on the federal law because he believes people don’t like the concept of the overhaul because they don’t understand what’s in it. He points to polling that shows the public endorsing individual aspects of the law.

But the decision to do this in a comic-book style was his publisher’s. “At first, I wasn’t enthusiastic,” Gruber says. “I didn’t think it would be that effective. But the publisher said they had done a graphic novel about the 9/11 report. My son likes graphic novels, he’s 17. He said it’s a great opportunity, it’s a great medium. When you’re on a plane and they want to teach you what to do in case of accident, they hand you a graphic. I think it was the right call.”

Although the book is chockablock with optimistic predictions about what will happen under the new law, the chapter on cost control takes a decidedly more cautious tone. Noting that it was politically impossible for the new law to include provisions that could be guaranteed to “bend the cost curve” and control health care costs, Gruber’s character says the law took the best ideas out there about what might work and wrote them all into the bill. (more…)

January 17, 2012
5:30—7:30PM
1750 K Street NW—10^th Floor

The Disruptive Women in Health Care Blog
Proudly Presents

A Health Reform Discussion
By
MIT Health Economist Dr. Jonathan Gruber

Featuring his new book:
Health Care Reform:
What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works

Please join us for a discussion, Q&A session, and book signing

There is no cost to attend.  All guests will receive a copy of Dr. Gruber’s book

RSVP by Friday, January 13, 2012

Hosted by

February 23rd Disruptive Women and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association will be hosting a screening of MISS Representation.

RSVP details and more information coming in early January.

Catalyst Research data released a few weeks ago found that women comprise 46.7% of America’s workforce and 51.5% of management and professional occupations. Unfortunately, the barriers to women advancing into executive positions persist with data showing that women still only represent 15% of Fortune 500 executive officer and board positions.

The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) E.D.G.E. in Leadership study revealed intriguing differences of opinion about the path to promotion, both between top managers and middle managers and between men and women. Middle managers, and women in particular, believe that personal drive, openness to change, and comfort with politics are the ingredients to getting ahead. However, senior manager experience shows that performance-related factors are mere qualifiers and that interpersonal skills make the real difference.

The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, in collaboration with Disruptive Women, is kicking off a new E.D.G.E.neer Your Career Program, with an assessment tool and related resources to prepare your career advancement plan for 2012.  Choose a New Year’s Resolution that can help you to advance your career.  Prepare to leverage the 2012 E.D.G.E.neer Your Career Webinar Series. The assessment tool and the upcoming webinar series are based on E.D.G.E., the Empowerment, Diversity, Growth, and Excellence in Leadership Study and what has worked to advance the careers of more than 200 leading life science executives.

Video Preview (1 min, 40 sec)

Register for today’s free informational webinar, December 1^st at noon, to learn more. 

By Lois Privor-Dumm. A few years ago, we were thinking about how do you get people to recognize that pneumonia is a problem in children? The answer is, we don’t have to figure it out – give people the simple facts and they will amplify the message. This week, I have seen so many innovative ways that individuals and organizations are getting the word out and showing they care about solving this very solvable problem of pneumonia: from the health departments, students and other interested people all over the Philippines creating their own song and building it up with a dance contest; the children’s fashion show and boat regatta in Nigeria; the virtual Baby Shower For Good sponsored by the Baby Center, UN Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, and ABC news; GAVI Alliance’s blog carnival to highlight the progress in the rollout of pneumococcal vaccines as part of the fight against pneumonia.  It’s all working towards the same goal to build awareness and support for solutions to child pneumonia.

My personal favorites were two simple things that I gave to my 3-year old niece – a plushy blue and pink lung pillow and coloring book. She loved it and her mother wanted to learn more about what I was working on. Pneumonia has been a problem for so long that many seem to forget about it. In the US, it is rare that you hear about a baby dying of pneumonia. Mainly because they generally are not malnourished (although this is still a problem in some areas), get their immunizations against the major causes of pneumonia including pertussis, measles, Hib and pneumococcus. And even if they do fall ill, they generally have good access to care. (more…)

By Robin Strongin.  Some women are not afraid to celebrate their age.  Today, our nation has something, and someone, wonderful to celebrate.  The Statue of Liberty, ‘Liberty Enlightening the World,’ was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The celebration theme selected by the National Park Service (think of them as Lady Liberty’s Accountable Care Organization) to mark this auspicious anniversary is ‘Honor History, Envision the Future.’

This got me thinking about the Disruptive Women in Health Care – past and present and how their vision of the future has also enlightened our world.  Here is a snapshot of my list. Who is on your list?

• Marie Curie—a contemporary of Lady Liberty, the original poster-child for STEM having discovered radioactivity, winner of not one but two Nobel prizes (for physics and chemistry) and, in her spare time, she became the first woman professor at the Sorbonne.
• Hillary Clinton—architect of health reform 1.0, and oh yes, a Senator and Secretary of State, who continues to champion the rights of women and girls, and
• Florence Nightingale—the original health services researcher who laid the foundation for today’s field of nursing; not only do new nurses take the Nightingale Pledge but International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday. And, oh yes, she too is known as the Lady with the Lamp.
• My Mother. Enough said.

For her birthday, Lady Liberty is getting  a high-tech uplift: Internet-connected cameras on her torch that will let viewers gaze out at New York Harbor or see visitors on the grounds below. For more information on the birthday celebration or the webcams click here.

The following ran on Forbes on October 19th.  I found this to be interesting and relevant to Health in Place (HIP) which we will launch on December 6th. For more information on HIP click here.

Recently, I interviewed Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, about the recent launch of Health eVillages. This initiative aims to bring mobile medical reference and decision support technology to clinicians fighting to save lives in underserved regions worldwide.

Kennedy is the author of The New York Times best seller “Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans talk about Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning,” published by Crown Books/Random House in September 2008, and “Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World,” (Random House, 2000). Ms. Kennedy started working in the field of human rights in 1981, when she investigated abuses committed by U.S. immigration officials against refugees from El Salvador. Since then, her life has been devoted to the pursuit of justice, to the promotion and protection of basic rights, and to the preservation of the rule of law. She established the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in 1988. She has led over 50 human rights delegations around the globe.

Rahim Kanani: What is Health eVillages?

Kerry Kennedy: Health eVillages is an amazing new coalition of healthcare and human rights advocacy groups that’s dedicated to bringing adequate healthcare to poor, remote and underserved areas around the globe through the latest mobile device technology.

Through contributions, we secure new and refurbished mobile phone and handheld devices, load them with the latest in clinical decision support technology, and get these devices to healthcare professionals who are on the ground providing public health services where it’s most desperately needed. These devices allow them to quickly access the latest information on every disease in common medical texts, for example, to assist in diagnosing and treating patients in even in the most remote regions.

The Health eVillages consortium is made up of leading international healthcare advocacy organizations, mobile healthcare solutions providers, health information technology companies, communications providers, and public health foundations. The RFK Center is part of this contsortium because our organization has been working for four decades on the cutting-edge of social change with human rights activists around the world, and the Health eVillages initiative brings the latest technology to our efforts to ensure that the neediest people around the globe have access to adequate healthcare, a fundamental human right. (more…)

By Robin Strongin.  Three years ago, in September 2008, Disruptive Women in Health Care launched with an exciting program at the National Press Club (take a look at our media page to see what we had to say at the time.)

I know, I know it’s October…but hey, we are disruptive so celebrating on the exact day seems so well, ordinary.  And the past three years have been anything but ordinary.  We all had something to say about the new health reform debate and ultimate passage.  We still have much to say about the new law, as well as a multitude of other topics.

One area that I have been thinking a lot about is the exploding area of mhealth (mobile health), remote monitoring, and telehealth.  Technology alone is not the answer of course.  But technology, coupled with innovative care delivery models (think health reform), and patients, caregivers and clinicians more comfortable with smartphones, apps, data sharing and online connectivity have all contributed to a new framework of health and wellness.  Aging in Place, staying connected, eICUs, PHRs and EHRs.  Exciting stuff.

But, like most solutions in health care, success must look beyond the health sector.  Here’s what I mean by that: staying healthy can’t just take place in a health setting or even in your home.  Maintaining your health and wellness or managing your chronic disease or disability requires a connection where ever you are — in other words, Health In Place.  Young people with epilepsy and diabetes still attend school, go on vacation and use public transportation.  Elderly individuals aging in place still travel to visit gradnchildren. And, adults maintaining exercise and nutrition regimens who travel for work need to stay connected to maintain wellness.  The Health In Place concept takes this broad view and will be bringing together thought leaders from not only the health field, but the telecom, travel, automobile and real estate sectors as well. 

The organizers of the 2011 mHealth Summit were so taken with this idea that they invited Disruptive Women to launch the Health In Place or HIP initiative with a reception on December 6th–we couldn’t be more thrilled or more flattered. So SAVE THE DATE:

Health In Place (HIP)™ — Disruptive Women in Health Care is Launching a New Initiative

Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 5:00–7:00 PM
Location: Pose Ultra Lounge & Nightclub–at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor (Washington DC)

Overview: The concept of Health In Place™ is built around the idea that our homes are more than just homes, our offices are more than just workplaces, our schools are more than just places of learning, and even our cars are more than just modes of transportation. Thanks to wireless communications and emerging technologies, each of these venues has become potential health and wellness centers or HIP. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, we can be protecting and enhancing our well-being. For this facet of 21st century health care to achieve its full potential — for more Americans to have the tools to link to their caregivers, to protect against and manage illness, while monitoring their well-being — a number of public policy issues are involved, cutting across multiple disciplines from health care regulations and benefit structures to tax policy to technology incentives. That’s why Amplify Public Affairs and the Disruptive Women in Health Care® blog (along with our media partenr, The Hill) have formed the Health In Place™ Initiative — to bring together policymakers and change agents from multiple industries.

 Please join us as we unveil this new initiative.

 Speakers:

• Robin Strongin, President & CEO, Amplify Public Affairs & Creator, Disruptive Women in Health Care — Moderator
• John Marttila, President, Marttila Strategies (a national polling expert)
• John C. (Jack) Lewin, MD, Chief Executive Officer, American College of Cardiology
• Pamela Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Professor, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Editor-in-Chief, American Nurse Today, 2010-11 Institute of Medicine Nurse Scholar-In-Residence (and a Disruptive Woman blogger)
• Halle Tecco, Founder & Managing Director of Rock Health (and a Disruptive Woman blogger)

Stay tuned for more information.  And by all means, please come out on December 6th and celebrate with us.

At three years of age, we are not only Disruptive, we are also HIP.

By Rozalynn Goodwin. Everyone seems to be quoting and tweeting the tender line of Miss Aibileen in “The Help”, “You is kiiiind. You is smaaaart. You is important.”

But there was another line in the blockbuster movie that moved me even more. I heard it and the heavens seemed to open. The light bulb came on.

Hilly Holbrook’s new maid is $75 short on one of the college tuitions for her twin sons and asks Hilly and her husband for a loan so she doesn’t have to choose which son should go to college. Doing the ‘Christian thing,’ Hilly refuses, “God does not give charity to those who are well and able.”

Twelve simple words from a fictional 1960’s character summed up our nation’s current political will regarding the poor. And allow me to condense this into just one word: selfishness.

We movie-goers were quick to see the bigotry in Hilly’s statement. The maid and her husband had been saving money from their meager wages for a long time and she wasn’t seeking a hand-out, but a loan she would pay off with her thankless labor. But I was also quick to see the hipocracy in those of us who identify ourselves as Christians regarding the poor–many like this maid are in temporarily tight spots by no fault of their own. I was convicted by the thought that a selfish Christian is just as much of an oxymoron as a Christian murderer. (more…)