Congressman Patrick Kennedy on Pandemic’s Impact on Increased Awareness of America’s Mental Health and Addiction Crisis

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with former US Congressman Patrick Kennedy, founder and CEO of The Kennedy Forum, an organization dedicated to advancing policies and best practices to improve access to mental health and addiction services. Congressman Kennedy, who co-sponsored the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act, addresses the devastating toll the pandemic has had on mental health and addiction, and talks about Biden Administration efforts to address the mental health crisis through expanded health coverage and more resources for addiction and mental health treatment.

Holidays & Mental Health: Interventions, Treatment & Equity

It’s a joyous time, as families begin to gather for Thanksgiving. But experts also say the holidays see a rise in mental health and addiction issues. This week we present an encore interview with Patrick Kennedy, a former member of Congress and a nationally acclaimed mental health and addiction advocate. He’s the founder of The Kennedy Forum, which seeks to revolutionize health care.

Kennedy discusses with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter his insights about how families are key for interventions and the role policymakers can play in creating mental health parity.

Dr. Paul Grundy, IBM’s global director of health care and founder of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative.

Conversations on Health Care® focuses this week on corporations striving for better value in purchasing health care. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Paul Grundy, IBM’s global director of health care and founder of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, about providing patient-centered primary care as a standard of care not only for large corporations, but for communities small and large.

Dr. Paul Tang, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Conversations on Health Care® focuses this week on steering the country into a new era of health information technology. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Paul Tang, chief innovation and technology officer for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, about how patients from kids to centenarians are going online to play a greater role in their health care.

Dr. Paul Cleary, dean of the Yale School of Public Health and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Paul Cleary, the dean of the Yale School of Public Health, about why engaging the community is so important in the school's latest research, and about some of the ways quality measures and patient satisfaction surveys are improving health outcomes.

Paul Starr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Starr about his new book, Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform. Dr. Starr takes us through the complexities of the debate over health care in America, the history of health reform in America, and how the Affordable Care Act both fulfills and falls short of earlier reform efforts.

Paul Gionfriddo, CEO of Mental Health America

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Paul Gionfriddo, CEO of Mental Health America, the nation's oldest organization dedicated to advancing access to mental services for all Americans. He discusses the need to change the nation's response to mental illness from a public safety to a public health approach.

Paul Sonnier, Founder of the Story of Digital Health

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Paul Sonnier, social entrepreneur and creator of The Story of Digital Health, a free online resource for digital health professionals. He is also the founder of the Digital Health Group on LinkedIn which has 50 thousand members worldwide, as well as 30 thousand Twitter followers, providing a platform for information sharing among digital health advocates.

Paul Gionfriddo, CEO of Mental Health America

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Paul Gionfriddo, CEO of Mental Health America, the nation's oldest organization dedicated to advancing access to mental services for all Americans. He discusses the need to change the nation's response to mental illness from a public safety to a public health approach.

FDA Advisory Committee Member Dr. Paul Offit on Vaccine Safety, Efficacy and Distribution

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, co-creator of the rotavirus vaccine, and member of the FDA Advisory Committee that approved emergency authorization for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. Dr. Offit says development of this new vaccine is a remarkable achievement backed by decades of scientific research that the Advisory Committee found to be safe an efficacious for widespread distribution. He’s hoping the Biden Administration will accelerate distribution efforts.

“A New Era of Vaccinology”: Dr. Paul Offit on mRNA Technology’s role in Vaccine Development

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A member of the FDA COVID Vaccine Advisory Panel and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, Dr. Offit points to the growing body of data around the safety and efficacy of the mRNA-based COVID vaccines, that it’s safe for all populations, including children and pregnant women, and sees it as a game changer for the future of vaccinology. He warns that the lack of global vaccination will impact vaccine effectiveness against growing threat of variants.

FDA Advisor Dr. Offit’s Latest Findings on COVID Vaccine & Young Children

FDA vaccine advisor Dr. Paul Offit’s recent article in JAMA Pediatrics looks at the millions of 5- to 11-year-old children who received the COVID vaccine.

His in-depth research review found that the mRNA vaccine was effective at preventing COVID, symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. The vaccine was also safe; myocarditis occurred in very rare cases.

Dr. Offit joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss his findings and why he supports the end of the public health emergency.

“Medical break-through saves lives!” How a simple check list can point us towards higher quality and lower cost.

Conversations on Health Care® focuses focuses today on health care innovations that save lives and reduce costs. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter will speak with Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, an internationally acclaimed leader in patient safety and quality whose innovations are being adopted around the world. Dr. Pronovost is a practicing intensivist, anesthesiologist, and public health expert whose “check-list” for use in intensive care units is just one reason that Time Magazine named him one of America’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2008.

Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont.

Conversations on Health Care® focuses this week on Vermont's plan to create the first single-payer health insurance program in the nation. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin about the bill he signed into law this year and why he believes it will make Vermont a healthier, more prosperous state.

Peter Speyer, Chief Data and Technology Officer at IHME

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Peter Speyer, Chief Data and Technology Officer at the Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation at the University of Washington. Mr. Speyer discusses their ground-breaking ongoing global health report, Global Burden of Disease, which utilizes big data analytics to provide an accurate measure of diseases leading to morbidity and mortality in 200 countries around the world.

Dr. Peter Basch, Medical Director of Ambulatory EHR and Health IT Policy, MedStar Health

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Peter Basch, Medical Director of EHR and Health IT Policy at MedStar Heath and Visiting Scholar at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution. They discuss the challenges practices are facing adhereing to ONC's Meaningful Use requirements with health IT adoption.

Telemedicine Champion Dr. Peter Yellowlees Discusses Impact of Telehealth on Access to Care

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Peter Yellowlees, President-elect of the American Telemedicine Association which seeks to improve health care delivery through better use of remote medicine technologies. Dr. Yellowlees discusses his decades of work at the University of California Davis advancing the use of telemedicine in clinical and behavioral care.

Cleveland Clinic Innovations Executive Director Peter O'Neill on their Innovation Strategy

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Peter O'Neill, Executive Director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the commercialization branch of Cleveland Clinic dedicated to bringing clinicians' inventions to the marketplace. Mr. O'Neill discusses the system that supports the clinicians/inventors, Cleveland Clinic's global expansion, and their annual list of technologies that will disrupt health care.

Dr. Peter Hotez on COVID-19 Vaccine

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with notable vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez, founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor University College of Medicine. Author of “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science”, Dr. Hotez warns deaths from COVID-19 will continue to rise dramatically until a national program of masks, testing, and social distancing is in place. He warns that we are months away from widespread vaccine distribution, and that multiple vaccine candidates should be deployed by next year. He’s also calling for a national messaging strategy to counter the anti-vaccination sector, which he says is being fueled largely on the internet by Russian bots.

Pediatrician Dr. Peter Hotez Creates New Vaccine; Gives Advice for Families With Young Children Staying Safe During Surge

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, and co-creator of a new, low-cost vaccine for COVID-19. Dr. Hotez discusses plans for Corbevax, a recombinant protein vaccine shown to be highly protective against COVID-19, which has just been given Emergency Use Authorization by the Indian government. Dr. Hotez’s plan is to make the formula available to poor and developing countries around the world, without any expectation of payment, to accelerate the pace of global vaccinations and bring the pandemic to an end. He also offers important advice to families with children navigating the omicron surge while heading back to school.