A Second Opinion with Senator Bill Frist, M.D.

Today I am joined by Nancy Agee. She is the President and CEO of the Carilion Clinic serving over a million people in Virginia and West Virginia. Nancy is also the former chair of the American Hospital Association.   She is renowned for her leadership and has been named repeatedly to the Top 25 Women in Healthcare. She has devoted her life to serving communities and improving healthcare accessibility, affordability, and outcomes in rural, underserved communities.   In our far-reaching conversation today, Nancy and I discuss the value of more female leadership in healthcare, the future of value-based care, how the pandemic expedited the need for behavioral health and telehealth, and our obligation to lift up our communities so that everyone has a chance at a long, healthy life.

My friend, Dr. Julio Frenk, joins us today. He is the president of the University of Miami as well as the former Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and former Minister of Health of Mexico.   Julio has devoted his life to “Health, Hope, and Healing” and is a globally recognized leader in public health and education.   In our conversation today, Julio and I discuss the importance of clear communication both in medicine and in policy, how we can reimagine the education of health professionals, what the future of healthcare holds as we navigate lessons learned from the pandemic, and the catalytic power that foundations have in truly promoting the common good.

Elad Walach joins us today. Elad is the co-founder and CEO of Aidoc, a New York & Tel Aviv-based company providing Artificial Intelligence solutions for medical imaging and health systems. Aidoc’s artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the accuracy of medical diagnoses and improving the outcomes and quality of care patients receive.   Elad began his career in an elite Israeli Defense Force technology program and went on to lead AI research in the Israeli Air Force.   In our conversation today, Elad and I look into cutting edge healthcare technology innovation, discussing the uptake and cultural acceptance of technology in modern medicine and how Artificial Intelligence provides information management solutions by increasing efficiency and decreasing waste and cost.

Dr. Mandy Cohen joins us today. You will be inspired. On March 1st, she took over as CEO of Aledade Care Solutions (ACS), and an Executive Vice President for Aledade. A “primary care enablement company,” Aledade is on the forefront of revolutionizing value-based care by working to establish a more efficient and a more effective delivery system for primary care.   Dr. Cohen previously served as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. And, before that, she served for over 5 years in Washington, D.C. at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Starting with CMMI Innovation Center and ending being Chief Operating Officer.   In our conversation today, Dr. Cohen and I talk about a range of issues, about how whole-person care and value-based care can result and will result in better quality care, how necessary good, actionable data leads to effective wrap-around solutions to benefit the health and wellbeing of patients, and about how policy can allow communities to lead with equity.   Additional Resources: Nashville Covid-19 After Action Report highlighted by Senator Frist: “Strategies For Future Preparedness: Examining The Impact Of Covid-19 In Nashville,” https://www.nashvillehealth.org/covid-response/

Jonathan Bush joins us today. He is the founder and CEO of Zus Health (pronounced Zeus), a young and rapidly growing company working to “reverse the curse of health data isolation” by creating the healthcare industry’s first shared development platform backed by a shared data record.   Prior to founding Zus, Jonathan was a co-founder and CEO of athenahealth. Currently, he also serves as the Executive Chairman of Firefly Health.   In our conversation today, Jonathan and I will take you on a fast-moving tour on empowering digital-first healthcare for better patient experiences and outcomes, on how policy set the stage for the founding of Zus, on pivotal points in his career and life and how setbacks lead to growth, on his fantastic ride and leadership with athenahealth, and, finally, on a crystal ball look into the future.

Robin Shah is the co-founder and CEO of Thyme Care, a fast-growing, two-year old company that guides cancer patients through a complex healthcare system by providing highly personalized support, quality resources, & quick access to high-value, holistic care.   Prior to founding Thyme Care, Robin held leadership roles at OneOncology and Flatiron Health, two innovative and cutting-edge healthcare organizations that are at the forefront of rethinking cancer care.  And I’ve personally had the opportunity to work closely with him through Thyme Care’s partnership with Frist Cressey Ventures.   In our conversation, Robin and I consider why treatment for cancer has become so complicated for today’s patients, and what an ideal care journey can look like with the right support.

Dr. Ashish Shah is the Alfred Blalock Endowed Director and Chair, Department of Cardiac Surgery, and director of Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support at Vanderbilt.  He is the driving force behind the nation's busiest heart transplant center.  Vanderbilt does more heart transplants than any hospital in the world.   February is American Heart Month, and in today’s conversation, Dr. Shah and I do a deep dive on heart health and the latest in transplantation – the miraculous, life-giving procedure that is rapidly evolving with today’s cutting-edge science.  We cover pig hearts, novel “heart in a box” technology, and medical progress that once sounded like science-fiction.   Additional Resources: Below are the videos cited in today’s show re: Vivien Thomas:   American Experience “Partners of the Heart” (TV Episode 2002) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328241/   “Something the Lord Made,” HBO Movie, 2007 - https://amzn.to/3uJngIE   Vivien Thomas, “Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock: An Autobiography,” 1998 - https://amzn.to/3rMSQn5   Gwendolyn Hooks & Colin Bootman, “Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas,” Children’s book, 2016 - https://amzn.to/3LvUDof

Wright Lassiter is the President and CEO of the Henry Ford Health System, overseeing the $6.6 billion integrated health system comprised of five acute care hospitals, three behavioral health facilities, a regional health plan and a wide range of ambulatory, retail and other health services across Michigan.   Wright is also the 2022 Chairman of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees, becoming the top-elected official of the national organization representing America’s hospitals and health systems.    In our discussion today, Wright and I consider the future of America’s hospitals, and the innovation and disruption that’s shaping healthcare today.

Dr. Linda Burnes Bolton is the Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer at Cedars-Sinai. She joined Cedars-Sinai in 1971, was named vice president of nursing in 1991, and serves as the inaugural holder of the James R. Klinenberg, MD, and Lynn Klinenberg-Linkin Chair in Nursing.   Over a career spanning more than five decades, Dr. Burnes Bolton has impacted healthcare policy, clinical practice and patient care nationally while elevating the role and enhancing the professional training of nurses.  One of the nation’s leading experts in the field, she’s served as president of the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the National Black Nurses Association and the American Academy of Nursing.   In our discussion today, Linda and I do a deep dive on the challenges in the nursing profession – including shortages, equity, and nursing education.    National Academy of Medicine Future of Nursing Reports:   2011: The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health - presents a set of bold recommendations to strengthen the capacity, education, and critical role of the nursing workforce: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12956/the-future-of-nursing-leading-change-advancing-health   2016: The Future of Nursing: Assessing Progress on the Institute of Medicine Report - highlights promising progress made since the 2011 report while noting that much more needs to be done: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27010049/   2021 - The Future of Nursing 2020 – 2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity – focusing on the achievement of health equity in the United States built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise: https://nam.edu/publications/the-future-of-nursing-2020-2030/

On January 14th, A Second Opinion joined with the Princeton University Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies and Princeton’s Center for Health and Wellbeing for Part 5 in a series, on the fiscal, monetary and health policy response implications of Covid-19.  You can hear Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 of this series in our podcast episode numbers 48, 69, 96 and 122.   For our discussion, I’m joined by Princeton’s leading economic and health policy experts: Jessica Metcalf, Associate Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Public Affairs, Alan Blinder, the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, and a former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, And Dr. Bill Dudley, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now Senior Research Scholar at the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies.   In this wide-ranging discussion, we cover the latest on how our current public health crisis has dramatically changed and continues to impact our economy, and our fiscal and monetary policy.  You can see the video version of this talk, which includes presenters’ slides, on our YouTube channel.