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

On February 3rd, community health collaborative NashvilleHealth and the Metro Nashville Public Health Department hosted a critically important discussion on the vaccine rollout in Nashville-Davidson County and the state of Tennessee.  We’re sharing this discussion with you today, where I’m joined by experts spearheading the Volunteer State’s vaccine distribution: Lisa Piercey, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health, and Alex Jahangir, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and chair of the Metro Board of Health and the Nashville COVID-19 Taskforce. We discuss Tennessee’s experience as a leader in effective distribution, the challenges our state has faced, and efforts to improve vaccine uptake. I want to thank our event sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, for making this panel possible.

Susan DeVore is the CEO of Premier.  Serving as its CEO since 2009, Susan is an industry-leading thinker who has consistently been named to Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People and Top 25 Women in Healthcare lists.   In the past year under Susan’s leadership, Premier has taken an active role in responding to the pandemic – from securing PPE for its members to establishing itself as a conduit for drugs that were in short supply to care for COVID patients.    Susan shares what she’s learned with us today – including fantastic insights into how to make our supply chain resilient, our vaccine distribution successful, and the environmental factors that can shift the entire healthcare landscape.

Today we’re sharing with you a special bonus episode.  As the nation faces mounting COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccine delays and shortages, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Future of Health Care Initiative released a new report with a set of urgent actions for the administration and Congress that would bolster the federal response to the pandemic.  The BPC is a Washington, DC-based think tank that works with both Republicans and Democrats to find bipartisan solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems.  Together with my friends former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and former Medicare & Medicaid Administrator Dr. Gail Wilensky, we co-chair a group of 14 of the nation’s leading health experts, who have over the past six months developed these recommendations. Today I’m sharing with you our six key recommendations for immediate action.  And while we are pleased that many of our recommendations align with the Biden administration’s COVID-19 national strategy, BPC’s report offers additional details that are important to implementing an effective, immediate response.  Report: “COVID-19: Urgent Federal Actions to Accelerate America’s Response”: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/future-of-health-covid19/

Dr. Rod Hochman is the President and CEO of Providence, a national, not-for-profit Catholic health system with 51 hospitals, employing nearly 120,000 caregivers serving communities across seven states: Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.  In addition to running the third-largest health system in the United States, Dr. Hochman is also the 2021 Chair of the American Hospital Association.   He is widely known as a disruptive, innovative leader who is driving change in healthcare – from conceptualizing the hospital of the future to pioneering new ways to marry emerging technology with health.  Rod is a big thinker whose ideas you don’t want to miss on this episode.

Today we’re sharing with you a special bonus episode.  Last week I virtually kicked off the American Telemedicine Association’s annual EDGE telehealth policy conference, sharing my thoughts – as a provider with a 60-year history with telehealth – on the virtual care revolution we are living through now.  I consider how far we’ve come, and outline what needs to be done to solidify these gains.  And I look to future challenges and make six recommendations for health systems and innovators engaging in the field. A special thanks to the American Telemedicine Association.  And for more compelling information on the future of telehealth, be sure to join Telehealth Tuesdays hosted by the ATA, running through February 2nd.  You can find more information at ataedge.org

Today we’re sharing with you a special bonus episode.  Last week I virtually kicked off the American Telemedicine Association’s annual EDGE telehealth policy conference, sharing my thoughts – as a provider with a 60-year history with telehealth – on the virtual care revolution we are living through now.  I consider how far we’ve come, and outline what needs to be done to solidify these gains.  And I look to future challenges and make six recommendations for health systems and innovators engaging in the field. A special thanks to the American Telemedicine Association.  And for more compelling information on the future of telehealth, be sure to join Telehealth Tuesdays hosted by the ATA, running through February 2nd.  You can find more information at ataedge.org .  

Daniel Nutkis is founder and CEO of HITRUST, a Texas-based company that works to safeguard sensitive information and manage information risk for global organizations across all industries and throughout the third-party supply chain. Dan has placed a heavy focus on establishing HITRUST programs as the standard for healthcare organizations seeking security, privacy, and certification. As healthcare – and our own personal health data – becomes increasingly digitized, data protection and cybersecurity are quickly becoming central to our nation’s health systems. In today’s conversation, we dive into the nuances of this growing healthcare need, and discuss the growing cyber threats all in our industry should be aware of.

I’m honored today to be joined by my longtime friend, colleague, and brilliant physician-scientist Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Collins has served as the NIH Director since 2009, first appointed by President Obama and reappointed in 2017 by President Trump.   Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book – something that amazingly was accomplished under budget & years ahead of schedule.    At the helm of the NIH, Dr. Collins is at the tip of the spear of our federal government’s Covid-19 treatment and vaccine research and development.  He’s one of our nation’s most talented scientific minds and communicators, and you don’t want to miss his insights on our show today.

Richard Ashworth is President and CEO of Tivity Health, a forward-thinking healthy lifestyle solutions company home to flagship brands SilverSneakers, Prime Fitness, WholeHealth Living and Wisely Well.  Prior to joining Tivity in June 2020, Richard facilitated the growth of Walgreens for nearly 30 years, transforming the company into a global leader in pharmacy and health and wellness. He started at Walgreens as a store clerk in 1992, and most recently served as President, responsible for the leadership, development and management of all Walgreens operations. A pharmacist by training, Richard has a keen understanding of the many factors that influence health, including social determinants, adherence to treatment and a healthy lifestyle – insights you’ll hear throughout our discussion today.   

Earlier this month, the Nashville Health Care Council and community health collaborative NashvilleHealth co-hosted a virtual conversation on Health Equity and Action to Eliminate Disparities, part 3 of a 3-part series.  We’re sharing this discussion with you today, where I’m joined by leading experts in the field: Joe Cacchione, Executive Vice President of Clinical & Network Services at Ascension, where he oversees system-wide clinical and care functions and subsidiaries, with a goal of addressing the holistic needs of patients. Prior to joining Ascension in 2017, he served as chairman of Operations and Strategy at the Cleveland Clinic's Heart & Vascular Institute.   And Niesha Foster, Vice President of Product Access, Global Health & Patient Access at Pfizer, where her team is focused on addressing the patient affordability challenge. Ms. Foster also co-leads Pfizer’s Multicultural Center of Excellence which advances health equity in diverse communities. In our discussion, we explore efforts to address inequity at the patient level from research to the bedside. I want to thank our event sponsor RLDatix for making this panel possible.