Emily George had the privilege of interviewing Lori Russell on our most recent episode of Unlocking Accountable Care. Lori is the Executive Director for Aspire Developmental Services, a non-profit organization based on the North Shore, which focuses on providing early intervention services for children.

In this episode, Lori shares with us the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as they relate to educational regression among children who are unable to participate in daycare and/or early intervention services as a result of safety regulations. Lori describes the ways her organization has shifted to accommodate various needs that have arisen in the community at this time. She also shares ideas for how on-profits who serve young children can revamp their programs and operations to mitigate the negative consequences of children not being able to engage in traditional learning activities.

On the most recent episode of Unlocking Accountable Care, Emily George had the privilege of interviewing Maria Levis. Maria is committed to transforming health systems to ensure access and health for vulnerable populations. She specializes in innovation, health systems research, strategy development, policy analysis, implementation sciences, patient centered medical home transformation, quality improvement, public health emergencies and value-based health care projects in New York, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico.

In this episode, Maria discusses her most recent work researching and implementing equitable, evidence-based interventions in healthcare. She specifically highlights her work in providing high quality telehealth services to vulnerable populations and describes how she uses readiness assessments to help focus her work and to provide high quality, targeted care.

Emily George had the privilege of interviewing Gustavo Torrez on our most recent episode of Unlocking Accountable Care. Gustavo is recognized nationally as a leader in the tobacco prevention and control movement with a focus on youth and young adult populations. He is the Director of Youth Advocacy at The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an organization devoted to leading the fight to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll in the United States and around the world.

In this episode, Gustavo describes the various ways he empowers young people to become involved in policy and advocacy. He discusses an online educational platform he launched for young people to learn fundamental skills to strengthen their ability to advocate for and implement lasting changes locally and nationally.

Emily George had the pleasure of interviewing Jonathan Payne on our most recent episode of Unlocking Accountable Care. Jonathan has a background in public health and biomedical engineering and is currently a Senior Consultant at Regenstrief Institute & Digital Impact Alliance at the UN Foundation. He’s also the Director at Open Concept Lab. He has spent the last decade working in low-resource settings where he has focused on the effective integration and adoption of information and communications technologies for health system strengthening.

In this episode, Jonathan draws from his background working in low-resource settings and explains why high-income settings often struggle to adjust and adapt to advances in digital health technology. He discusses the lessons we can learn about COVID-19 relief from the global health community’s responses to previous health crises, such as Ebola. Jonathan also introduces the concept of global goods – digital health tools that are adaptable to different countries and contexts – and describes the Open Concept Lab, a platform he designed to collect, standardize, and report health measures between countries.

I had the honor of having Jim Tate on our most recent episode of Unlocking Accountable Care. Jim Tate is the Chief Product Officer at MediVisum Telehealth Solutions, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has overseen large-scale implementations of electronic health systems in various hospitals and healthcare institutions across the United States and Asia. Jim is also a fellow podcast host of a show called The Tate Chronicles where he discusses technological advances in healthcare.

In this episode, Jim discusses the changes in digital health technology in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. He talks through the rapid shifts in regulations and policies governing service provision – such as expanding telehealth services and their respective reimbursement rates – and speculates on which changes will remain long after the public health emergency is over.

On our most recent episode of Unlocking Accountable Care, I had the opportunity to interview Kavita Bouknight, CEO and Co-Founder of Match Health Academy. Kavita has worked as an innovator in the health products industry for over 15 years, introducing new health innovations in the fields of cardiovascular health, orthopedics, general surgery and women’s health.

In this podcast, Kavita shares about Match Health Academy – an online learning platform with self-paced courses designed to help patients and their families improve their understanding of health conditions, drive awareness of available treatment options, and provide access to helpful resources. Listen as Kavita shares her personal vision for her business and the pivotal role consumer-facing platforms play in improving health outcomes.

On our most recent podcast, Unlocking Accountable Care, we spoke with Linda Schwimmer, President and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. Linda is responsible for driving policies that advance health care safety, access and affordability. She is well-known for her commitment to drive lasting change that improves health care for every person in New Jersey.

In this podcast, Linda shares more about her work and experience with small group employers within the state of New Jersey. She discusses the steep decline in the small group market, drivers, implications, and ways in which to offer stability to curb the negative impact of these shifts. (All resources that Linda mentions in this blog can be found here.)

Emily George recently had the privilege of speaking with Kathy Laytham on our most recent episode of Unlocking Accountable Care. Kathy Laytham is an American family nurse practitioner who has practiced clinically in a variety of settings for the last 17 years in Taiwan.

Taiwan has been recognized globally for their well-coordinated and timely response to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite being close to the Wuhan epicenter where the virus originated. In this episode, Kathy discusses the variety of ways government and public health officials targeted institutions, communities, and individuals to ensure the health and well-being of their citizens. She also expounds on the inherent trust the Taiwanese have in their government and how a philosophy of collectivism (versus individualism) may have underpinned Taiwan’s ability to contain the virus more effectively than other nations across the world. (Producer’s note: At the time this podcast was recorded on June 25, 2020, Taiwan had recorded only 447 cases of COVID-19 in the entire country of 23 million people; only 7 people had died from the disease.)

Our host, Emily George, recently spoke with Dr. Lisa Bielamowicz on our podcast Unlocking Accountable Care. Lisa is the president and co-founder of Gist Healthcare – a membership organization for health systems and physician groups to share learnings and best practices, and receive strategic advice for building capacity to better serve their communities.

Lisa a national expert in delivery transformation and a trusted advisor to hundreds of health systems and physician networks. In this podcast, Lisa elaborates on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted small physician networks and larger health systems, and shares invaluable advice on strategies that can be applied in the short-term and long-term to ensure sustainability.

The Pacific Business Group on Health works with employers who collectively spend over $100 billion a year on healthcare. Elizabeth Mitchell, the group's CEO, spends her time figuring out how to spend those dollars to maximum effect, on a constant search to identify ways to increase the value of the care delivered to their 15 million employees.

As Mitchell put it, "Healthcare is not their day job. They build airplanes. They sell groceries. And the idea that they are supposed to fix the healthcare system is a strange concept. But the level of frustration with the system is so high that they have stepped up to the role."

The combination of employers' desire to improve healthcare quality and patient experience for their employees, their financial heft, and PBGH's subject matter expertise have led to a number of innovative systems and models in place today, with more in development for the future.

In this podcast, with guest host Niko Lehman-White, you'll learn about PBGH's hands-on work with its clients and participating health systems, including clinical transformations, a Centers of Excellence network, and innovative payment models. And the results for their patients, who have better experiences, fewer remissions and infections, and lower costs, lends credence to the concept she frequently brings up: that better care costs less.

Our host, Emily George, had the honor of having Chris Allen on Unlocking Accountable Care. Chris was the former CEO of Authority Health, based in Wayne County, Michigan – an organization that strives to meet the unmet health and social needs of communities by helping individuals enroll in insurance and navigate the health system. Chris also helped start a graduate medical education program embedded in underserved areas of Wayne County to ensure that medical providers have a clear understanding and appreciation for the health-related social risk factors of their patients.

In this podcast, Chris shares his passion for facilitating understanding of the ways in which “power of place” like an individual’s zip code, skin color, and/or socio-economic status determine individuals’ life expectancy and health outcomes. He discusses the history of redlining and other discriminatory policies that have had long-term negative outcomes, particularly for African Americans within the U.S. A champion of providing evidence-informed, equitable healthcare delivery, Chris has had hundreds of students enroll in his medical education program. Here, Chris explains why he tells residents that “if a patient is admitted to our hospital, we have failed.”  

In this episode we hear from Dr. Bill Berry, Co-founder of Ariadne Labs, as he discusses how provider communications around patient safety have evolved alongside managed care. Listen as Dr. Berry provides insightful recommendations for how healthcare leaders can turn policy into meaningful action.

In this episode, Julian Dormitzer, Nurse Practitioner and Biomedical Research Team Manager at Fenway Health. Julian’s provides direct, patient-centered care to LGBTQ youth living with, or at-risk for, HIV. Listen as Julian discusses as her strides to increase access to culturally competent care in communities serving LGBTQ populations.

Join us for a special episode with Charles Gaba, founder of ACASignups.net, a website which live-tracks Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollments since the exchanges launched in October 2013. His work has been cited as being the most reliable source available for up-to-date, accurate ACA enrollment data in the country. Listen as Charles discusses considerations for the future of the ACA in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and upcoming presidential election.

In this episode we hear from Harold Cox, Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. Listen as Dean Cox describes how Massachusetts state policy ensures that the building and expansion of health care facilities reflect the needs of the communities they serve.

Join us for a special episode with Rosemarie Day, Founder and CEO of Day Health Strategies. As the first COO of the Massachusetts Health Connector, Rosemarie recounts successes and challenges in establishing near-universal insurance coverage across the state. She also describes how this experience motivated her to write her newly- released book: Marching Toward Coverage: How Women Can Lead the Fight For Universal Healthcare (Beacon Press, 2020).

In this episode we hear from Mary Fleming, former Chief of Staff at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Drawing on over 30 years of experience in the behavioral health field, Mary shares how we should be thinking about the issues surrounding mental and behavioral health. She offers her take on the next steps for significant policy reform towards integrated care.

In this episode, we hear from Dr. David Jones, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. An expert in health care politics, Dr. Jones explains the history and importance of bipartisan support in health policy and discusses how it relates to his current research on social determinants of health and health equity in the U.S.