The Closing General Session will take place on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Generation Public Health: Becoming a Healthier Nation
A Panel Discussion
Today Americans are not getting the value for their health dollar. In 2008 more than $2 trillion was spent on health care, twice as much as most industrialized nations while providing inadequate value and outcomes for the expenditure. Health systems reform is underway. One important component of that effort is to transform our nation from one that relies on sickness care to one that values and promotes wellness.
The role of this population based approach in a reformed health system will be explored through the eyes of several of our nation's most senior federal public health policy makers in the U.S. Public Health Service. Since its founding, the U.S. Public Health Service has worked to ensure the health of the American people. Through the years it has been on the forefront of every major health crisis, health reformation and new development. The panel will explore several of the critical issues in the debate about health care reform today such as:
- Building an adequate primary care & prevention orientated workforce
- Moving to wellness and the role of the community prevention programs
- Improving the safety of foods, devices, medications & products
- Maximizing the use of evidence based clinical preventive health services
- System efficiencies & equity
- Addressing the social determinants of health
Dr. Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH serves as the 14th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), after nomination by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009. Dr. Koh oversees the HHS Office of Public Health and Science, the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Office of the Surgeon General. He also serves as senior public health advisor to the Secretary. He leads an array of interdisciplinary programs relating to disease prevention, health promotion, reduction of health disparities, women’s and minority health, HIV/AIDS, vaccine programs, physical fitness and sports, bioethics,
population affairs, blood supply, research integrity and human research protections.
Dr. Koh previously served as the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health, Associate Dean for Public Health Practice, and Director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was also Director of the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness, which promotes education about bioterrorism, pandemic influenza, and other emerging health threats.
Dr. Koh served as Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1997-2003) after being appointed by Governor William Weld.
Dr. Koh graduated from Yale College and the Yale University School of Medicine. He completed postgraduate training at Boston City Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as chief resident in both hospitals. He has earned board certification in four medical fields: internal medicine, hematology, medical oncology, and dermatology, as well as a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University.
Yvette Roubideaux, MD, MPH, is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota, and is the Director of the Indian Health Service (IHS). Dr. Roubideaux was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as IHS Director and was sworn in on May 12, 2009. The IHS, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is the principal federal health care advocate and provider for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
As the IHS Director, Dr. Roubideaux administers a $4 billion nationwide health care delivery program composed of 12 administrative area offices. The IHS is responsible for providing preventive, curative, and community health care to approximately 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in hospitals, clinics, and other settings throughout the United States.
Dr. Roubideaux previously worked for IHS for three years as a clinical director and medical officer at the San Carlos Service Unit on the San Carlos Apache Indian reservation in Arizona, and she worked for one year as a medical officer at the Hu Hu Kam Memorial Indian Hospital on the Gila River Indian reservation in Arizona.
Dr. Roubideaux received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1989 and completed a residency program in primary care internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in 1992. She completed her Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1997.
Mary K. Wakefield, PhD, RN, is Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Previously, Dr. Wakefield was the Associate Dean for Rural Health at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota (UND), a tenured professor, and Director of the university’s Center for Rural Health. At UND, she also was Director of the Rural Assistance Center and administered, through the Center for Rural Health, the Critical Access Hospital Health Information Technology Implementation program.
She also has served as Director of the Center for Health Policy, Research and Ethics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and worked on site as a consultant to the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Wakefield is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies in 2004. In addition, she has served on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, as Chair of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, as a member of President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, and as a member of the National Advisory Committee to HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy.
Dr. Wakefield has a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from the University of Mary in Bismarck and master's and doctoral degrees in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin.
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When you book your annual meeting travel, be sure to allow yourself enough time to stay for this most exciting and ground breaking moderated discussion. This will be a presentation you won't want to miss!
