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Top Penn LDI Experts Address Biggest Challenges of Health Care’s New Era
Researchers From Across Penn's Schools Gather for 2018 Health Policy Retreat: Photos and Video
Opened in the Fall of 2016, Penn’s Perry World House (above, left) is a center of global policy research and a conference venue famed for its artworks and airy architecture. Above, left, moderating a panel focused on health care prices and payment systems is LDI Senior Fellow Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Chair of MEHP.
Welcoming attendees is Daniel Polsky, PhD, (above, left) Executive Director of LDI and a professor of both Health Care Management at the Wharton School and Medicine at the Perelman School. He pointed out that the audience included faculty researchers from political science, medicine, management, economics, ethics, nursing and law and reflected the unique environment of the gathering. “Even people who have been at Penn a long time,” he said, “often don’t fully comprehend how rare it is to have this mix of collaboration but it’s something that runs in the DNA of Penn, not only in health care but across so many other domains as well.” Above, right, a “Meet the Press” session featured American Public Radio Marketplace health care reporter Dan Gorenstein and Vox.com’s senior policy correspondent Sarah Kliff offering tips on how researchers could enhance their mass media dissemination efforts.
At the podium (above, left), LDI Senior Fellow Shreya Kangovi, MD, MSHP, details the latest developments in the Community Health Workers program she created and which has now grown to become the Penn Medicine Center for Community Health Workers. Above, right, Ezekiel Emanuel said the health policy research field has become more crowded in recent years but he is optimistic that Penn retains its pre-eminence. He cited two reasons: Penn’s long lead in both behavioral change for patients, physicians and other providers, and experiments in health care innovation that “actually figure out what can and can’t work in the real world.”
LDI Senior Fellow Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, who returned to Penn after spending 14 years as the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation chats with Curtis Lane, MBA, Chairman of the LDI Executive Advisory Board and Founding Partner of MTS Health Partners, a health care financial services firm. Above, right, Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine noted, “We’ve got a real crisis coming with rising health care costs consuming more and more of our economy and stressing U.S. business and personal economic viability. We have an obligation to deliver high quality, high value care and the research you all do is a big part of that.”
Above, left, Rebecka Rosenquist, MSc, LDI Associate Director for Health Policy, escorts LDI Distinguished Health Policy Fellow Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH, the former HHS Department Assistant Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response. Above, right, in a group discussion during the lunch break are Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBE, Presidential Assistant Professor in MEHP; Harald Schmidt, PhD, Assistant Professor at MEHP; Allison Hoffman, JD, Professor of Law, Penn Law School; Amol Navathe, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Perelman School; Daniel Polsky, LDI Executive Director; Norma Coe, PhD, Associate Professor at MEHP; Emily Largent, PhD, JD, RN, Assistant Professor at MEHP.
LDI Senior Fellow Matthew Grennan, PhD (above, left), Assistant Professor of Health Care Management at the Wharton School, is part of a team studying the degree to which prices for hospital supplies and medical devices vary. He detailed the team’s finding of wide differences in price for exactly the same products sold by exactly the same vendor or manufacturer to different hospitals. Above, right, David Grande, MD, MPA, an Assistant Professor at the Perelman School and LDI Director of Policy, moderates a panel that discusses the rapidly-changing situation of Medicaid, which was expanded by the ACA but is now being contracted by the Trump administration.
Ingrid Nembhard, PhD, MS (above, left), an Associate Professor of Health Care Management at Wharton is studying the organization and management of coordinated care practices. She noted that although the issue has been a subject of discussion and debate for some time in the new age of health reform, “care coordination failures are still quite prevalent.” A 2016 Commonwealth Fund survey in 11 countries found that 35% of U.S. patients said they experienced a care coordination failure in the previous two years. Nembhard said the data shows care coordinated gaps are associated with “more medication errors, higher mortality rates and much higher cost of care.” Above, right, Judith Long, MD, Chief of the Penn Medicine Division of General Internal Medicine chats with Eve Higginbotham, MD, SM, Vice Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at the Perelman School.
Deep in discussion during a break are LDI Senior Fellows (above, left) Mark Pauly, PhD, of the Wharton School and Paula Chatterjee, MD, MPH, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Division of General Internal Medicine. Above, right, in another collegial huddle are LDI Senior Fellows Atul Gupta, PhD, a Wharton School Assistant Professor of Health Care Management, Scott Harrington, PhD, a Professor of Health Care Management, Insurance and Risk Management and Business Economics at the Wharton School, and David Grande, MD, MPA.
Engaged in lively repartee are Markeplace’s Dan Gorenstein and LDI Senior Fellow Atheendar Venkataramani, MD, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Perelman School. Above, right, taking a breather from the event they played crucial roles in organizing are LDI staffers Emily Shields, Executive Assistant; Julia Mitchell, MPA, Health Policy Specialist; and Safa Browne, Research Coordinator.
Amol Navathe, MD, PhD (above, left) an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Medicine at the Perelman School discussed his studies of bundled payment, an alternative system established by the Affordable Care Act and now being tested across the country. Above, right, Konrad Kording, a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor at Perelman and the School of Engineering talks with LDI Senior Fellow Stephanie Creary, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School.
Ezekiel Emanuel (above, left) chats with Vox.com’s Sarah Kliff after the “Meet the Press” session. Above, right, Daniel Polsky with the Law School’s Allison Hoffman.
Video Excerpts from the Policy Retreat
