Dr. John Ball, Vice President Emeritus, American College of Physicians

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. John Ball, VP Emeritus of the American College of Physicians and Chair of the Committee on Diagnostic Error in Health Care at the National Academies of Medicine, which determined diagnostic errors are a major contributor to patient harm and need to be addressed by all stakeholders in the health care system.

Katherine Baicker, Harvard School of Public Health

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Katherine Baicker, PhD, the C. Boyden Grey Professor of Health Economics at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard. An expert on the health and economic impacts from gaining insurance coverage, she discusses her noted study of the Oregon Medicaid Experiment as well as the impact of the Medicaid Expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

Trust for America's Health CEO John Auerbach on Its Report Outlining America's Obesity Epidemic

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with John Auerbach, President and CEO of Trust for America's Health, a non-profit dedicated to making sound health policy a national priority. He discusses their recent report on obesity in America, the dramatic cost to the health system caused by the prevalence of obesity, and the need to protect health coverage for millions of Americans in the ongoing health reform discussions.

Mary Jo Assi, Director of Nursing Practice at the American Nurses Association

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Mary Jo Assi, PhD, Director of Nursing Practice and Work Environment at the American Nurses Association which represents the nation's 3.4 million nurses. They discuss the expanding scope of the nursing work force in the ACA era, as well as the organization's current focus on workforce safety.

Commonwell Health Alliance's Jitin Asnaani on Mission for National Health Data Exchange

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Jitin Asnaani, Executive Director of the CommonWell Health Alliance which is on a mission to make a nationwide health data exchange a reality. They discuss the national network of payer, provider and EHR vendors joining the Alliance to advance interoperability across multiple electronic health record platforms with health data flowing seamlessly from patient to providers.

Dr. Sanjeev Arora, founder of the Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO).

Conversations focuses this week on an innovative model of care that’s linking primary care providers with specialists in rural and underserved areas of the country. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sanjeev Arora, founder of Project ECHO, about how the ECHO model has the potential to increase access, improve health outcomes, and support primary care providers in caring for complex conditions.

Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, President of the National Physicians Alliance

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, President of the National Physicians Alliance, an organization founded to restore trust in the medical profession by eliminating conflicts of interest. Dr. Arkoosh discusses their “Un-Branded Doctor” initiative which urges physicians to refuse payments of any kind from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, and talks about the organization’s “Good Stewardship” program which calls for doctors and patients to reduce costly and unnecessary tests.

The Expanding Obesity Revolution: New Options

As many Americans start the summer stressed about their physiques and health, there are important developments. Drug-makers report successful mid-stage trials for oral compounds that could soon join the injectable prescription medication to treat obesity that’s already on the market.

Dr. Jamy Ard, president-elect of The Obesity Society, says he believes oral obesity medications offer new options for those not comfortable with an injectable drug and for those who suffer adverse side effects from current offerings. He also believes more choices will lower prices for consumers.

“I think we’re at a watershed moment, this is really sort of an inflection point if you will, in thinking about the potential change in the landscape and how we conceptualize treatment of obesity. For the longest [time], a lot of the basic thinking about how we treat obesity was rooted in it was just a calorie imbalance…people were eating too much and exercising too little. As you know, that clearly has not worked,” says Dr. Ard.

He shares more insights on “Conversations on Health Care” with hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter.

Jack Andraka, Intel Science Fair Winner

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with 16 year old Intel Science and Engineering award winner, Jack Andraka. The young scientist, cancer researcher and inventor has won numerous global awards for creating an early detection device for pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Gerard Anderson, Director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Gerard Anderson, Director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Anderson shares his expertise on health care payment reform and living well with chronic disease.

Margaret Anderson, Executive Director of FasterCures

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Margaret Anderson, Executive Director of FasterCures, an action tank dedicated to saving lives by speeding up and improving the medical research systems. They discuss the ongoing threat to NIH research due to funding reductions, but also the game changing potential of new technologies and increased patient engagement to advance biomedical research.

Dr. Ruben Amarasingham, Founder and CEO of PCCI

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Ruben Amarasingham, Founder and CEO of PCCI, a non-profit research and development corporation in Dallas, Texas that specializes in real-time predictive and surveillance analytics for health care. Dr. Amarasingham discusses the system he created that is significantly reducing hospital readmissions and the potential for greatly improved health outcomes utilizing real time health data analytics.

Stuart Altman, a leading health-care economist, on meeting the future demands under health-care reform.

Conversations on Health Care® turns its’ focus to the future challenges now that reform has passed. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Stuart Altman, a leading health-care economist and professor of National Health Policy at Brandeis University, about the potential for reform to deliver on its’ goals.

Dr. Drew Altman, President and CEO of Kaiser Family Foundation

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on major health care issues facing the nation as well as global health. Kaiser is dedicated to providing non-partisan health information and analysis for policy makers, the media and general public.

Stuart Altman, Ph.D, Heller School of Public Policy, Brandeis University

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Stuart Altman, PhD, Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Dr. Altman is an expert on universal health coverage and discusses his recent work as Chair of the IOM Committee assessing progress on recommendations made in the 2010 Institute of Medicine Report on The Future of Nursing, which advocates for a stronger role for nurses in the expanding health care system.

Drew Altman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Drew Altman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. An innovator in the world of foundations and leading expert on national health policy, Dr. Altman discusses the Foundation's dedication to tracking America's views on health and health policy through its non-partisan polling and publishing entities, and discusses the current mood of American voters on health policy heading into the Presidential election.

How Do We Make Healthy Buildings the Next Public Health Revolution?

Joseph Allen is the director of the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As the co-author of “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity,” his views are closely followed as we try to move quicker than COVID can spread.

“Conversations on Health Care” co-hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talk with Allen about new efforts to elevate the quality of indoor spaces in an overall health strategy.

Reaction to New CDC Ventilation Targets in Light of COVID

National Access to Primary Care and Minister of Loneliness: Dr. Charles Alessi on the UK's Approach to Population Health and Dementia Prevention

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Charles Alessi, Senior Advisor for Dementia Prevention at Public Health England, the UK's equivalent of the CDC. Dr. Alessi talks about the prevention strategies being deployed across the UK to delay the onset of dementia, the lack of barriers to primary care services, and their recently announced Minister of Loneliness to confront this chronic health issue.

National Access to Primary Care and Minister of Loneliness: Dr. Charles Alessi on the UK's Approach to Population Health and Dementia Prevention

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Charles Alessi, Senior Advisor for Dementia Prevention at Public Health England, the UK's equivalent of the CDC. Dr. Alessi talks about the prevention strategies being deployed across the UK to delay the onset of dementia, the lack of barriers to primary care services, and their recently announced Minister of Loneliness to confront this chronic health issue.