Policy Expert Webtalks Doctors for America

When was the last time you met with your members of Congress or their staff? If you're like most doctors and medical students, the answer is probably never. In fact, you may not have known that anyone can set up a meeting - and they do!
It turns out that meetings are how members of Congress learn what's on the minds of the people they represent. It's how we help shape their thinking on the issues that matter to us - whether we typically agree or disagree with their positions. In fact, Doctors for America members have changed their members of Congress's minds and even their votes on key issues by meeting with them and building a relationship with them.
Take a few minutes to watch this training to learn the most effective tactics to use in meetings with your elected officials. Then review this handout on how to conduct a meeting.

Doctors for America hosted a webtalk with leading experts discussing one of the top issues identified by DFA members and the general public – high drug prices. Click here for a recording of the session.
Hosted by DFA Senior Advisor Harold Pollack
 
Special Guests:
Aaron Kesselheim is a physician, lawyer, and a leading health-policy researcher at Harvard Medical School. His work focuses on intellectual property, policies on prescription drugs, regulatory approval, costs, availability, and use.

Rena M. Conti, PhD is an expert on the financing, regulation and organization of medical care, with an emphasis on biopharmaceutical markets and oncology practice. She is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Pediatrics, section of hematology/oncology, and the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago School of Medicine.

DFA Leaders:
Bruce Rector is a physician, lecturer on pharmaceutical policy and consultant to life science companies. He is a Co-leader of the DFA DrugPricing & Value campaign.

Justin Lowenthal an MD/PhD student at Johns Hopkins, a biomedical engineer, and a bioethicist with expertise in ethical issues at the intersection of emerging therapeutic technologies and health care systems. 

 

DFA Senior Advisor and University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack talks with with Daniel Webster, one of the nation's leading gun violence researchers. They discussed that the CDC has been unable to conduct substantive research on gun violence due to an effective ban put in place by Congress and a lack of dedicated funding.  
A full audio recording of the call is available here.
Featuring leading gun violence researcher Daniel Webster

and hosted by DFA Senior Advisor Harold Pollack

DFA Senior Advisor and University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack talks with two of the Nation's leading experts on health reform: Professor Timothy Jost, and Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution. They discussed the implications of the King v. Burwell victory and the future challenges and strategies for improving the Nation’s health care.
A full audio recording of the call is available here.
Guest Speakers:
Timothy JostTimothy Jost holds the Robert L. Willett Family Professorship of Law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. He is a co-author of a casebook,Health Law, used widely throughout the United States in teaching health law, and of a treatise and hornbook by the same name. He is also the author of HealthCare Coverage Determinations: An International Comparative Study; Disentitlement? The Threats Facing our Public Health Care Programs and a Rights-Based Response; and Readings in Comparative Health Law and Bioethics, the second edition of which appeared this spring. He has also written numerous articles and book chapters on health care regulation and comparative health law and policy, and has lectured on health law topics throughout the world. His most recent book is Health Care at Risk: A Critique of the Consumer-Driven Movement, which was published by Duke University Press in 2007.
Henry J. AaronHenry J. Aaron is currently the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. From 1990 through 1996 he was the director of the Economic Studies program.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the advisory committee of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and the visiting committee of the Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the board of directors of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He was a founding member, vice president, and chair of the board of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has been vice president and member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association and was president of the Association of Public Policy and Management. He has been a member of the boards of directors of the College Retirement Equity Fund and Georgetown University.

Listen to the podcast
On Tuesday, January 22, Harvard public health researcher David Hemenway participated in a special Doctors for America “Ask the experts” policy call to share his insights on President Obama's gun violence prevention plan and other matters in health policy.
David Hemenway, Ph.D., is Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.  He has won ten teaching awards at Harvard School of Public Health. He has written widely on injury prevention, including articles on firearms, violence, suicide, child abuse, motor vehicle crashes, fires, falls and fractures.  He headed the pilot for the National Violent Death Reporting System, which provides detailed and comparable information on suicide and homicide.
Dr. Hemenway has written numerous books and peer-review articles. His book, Private Guns Public Health(2006) describes the public health approach to reducing firearm violence, and summarized the scientific studies on the firearms and health. While You Were Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention (2009) describes more than sixty successes, and over thirty heroes who have made the world safer. 
Listen to the podcast

Supreme Court Decision: What It Means and What's Ahead for Health Reform 
Harold Pollack hosts an all-star team of policy experts - Henry Aaron, Jonathan Gruber, Timothy Jost, Mark Peterson - who share their insights and reactions to the Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act.
Henry Aaron is the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has served as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been vice president and member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association and was president of the Association of Public Policy and Management.
 
 
Jonathan Gruber is Professor of Economics at MIT. A member of the Institute of Medicine, he was awarded the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the Best Health Economist in the Nation aged 40 and under. Dr. Gruber was a principal architect of the Massachusetts health reform (“Romneycare”) and later the Affordable Care Act.
 
 
Timothy S. Jost holds the Robert L. Willett Family Professorship of Law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. A regular contributor to the Health Affairs blog and an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, he is the author of numerous books and articles regarding legal and implementation issues in health reform.
 
 
Mark Peterson is Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law at UCLA. He is a founding team member of the UCLA-based multidisciplinary Blue Sky Health Initiative to transform the U.S. health and health care system, which has helped advise Congress on the inclusion of disease prevention and health promotion strategies in the current health care reform legislation.  Previously, as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, he served as a Legislative Assistant for Health Policy in the Office of U.S. Senator Tom Daschle.  During 2000-2003 he was on the Study Panel on Medicare and Markets organized by the National Academy of Social Insurance.