COLLABORATE TO INNOVATE: HOW THE FDA IS ADVANCING PERSONALIZED MEDICINE THROUGH NEW PARTNERSHIPS
Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration, and Paul Howard discuss genetic testing, the role of the FDA in regulation, and the importance of public-private collaboration.

"No company wants to develop new clinical trial methods; that's not their business. . . . However we need new scientific trial methods, for example to evaluate use of genetic tests along with new drugs that come along, and so we need to come together in different ways to develop that regulatory science."
— Janet Woodcock

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Critical Path 2010 Update
Dr. Woodcock Comments on The Critical Path Initiative
The Critical Path Initiative: Report on Key Achievements in 2009

WHAT OBAMACARE DIDN'T DO
Rita Numerof, Ph.D., and Paul Howard discuss Obamacare's effects on the health care industry, and what is being done to advance evidence-based medicine.

"The legislation that was passed earlier this year only addressed . . . the issue of insurance reform, and at . . . an enormous expense and bureaucratic oversight. But the legislation really didn't address the ultimate objective of better health outcomes at lower costs in a direct way; it didn't address the issue of delivery reform; and it didn't address the issue of payment reform."
—Rita Numerof

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Follow the Money . . . Where Healthcare Policy is Headed
Regulation's Impact On Innovation: A Two-Edged Sword

OBAMACARE'S BROKEN PROMISES
James C. Capretta is a Fellow in the Economics and Ethics Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). Previously, he was an Associate Director at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 2001 to 2004, where he was the top budget official for health care, Social Security, education, and welfare programs. This week, Capretta talks about the broken promises already emerging from Obamacare.

"What they've done though in regulatory rule-making, is essentially narrow the definition of what can be considered a grandfathered plan so narrowly that virtually no employer will be able to qualify for it. . . . Employers are coming to the realization that they have lost complete control over their job-based plans. . . . And the plans that existed previously are going to vanish."
—James C. Capretta

RECOMMNEDED READING:
About Those Presidential Promises

DELAYED DRUG APPROVALS: Who Suffers Most?
Tomas J. Philipson, Ph.D., is the chairman of the Manhattan Institute's Project FDA and the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. From 2003-04 he served as a Senior Economic Advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and from 2004-2005 he served as a Senior Economic Advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Eric Sun, M.D., Ph.D., is a resident in the department of anesthesiology at Stanford University and a visiting fellow at the Bing Center for Health Economics at the RAND Corporation.

This week, Tomas and Eric discuss their new report, "Cost of Caution: The Impact on Patients of Delayed Drug Approvals," and how to save lives by streamlining the FDA's drug-development process. The report was released last week on Capitol Hill to influential staffers, scholars, and policy makers.

"What this report is concerned with is essentially that even though the latter part of the [FDA's drug-approval process], the time that FDA takes to evaluate the [trial] data, has gone down dramatically, . . . the time to conduct these trials from phase one to three has not, and that's really the bulk of development time from idea to market . . . . And that is really what affects patients waiting for these treatments to go on the market"
—Tomas Philipson

RECOMMNEDED READING:
No Refills
Desperately Seeking Cures
Report: FDA Science and Mission at Risk
FDA's Critical Path Initiative

THE MISSING LINK: Advancing Personalized Medicine
Raymond L. Woosley is founder, president, and CEO of the Critical Path Institute (C-Path), an independent, non-profit organization uniquely dedicated to implementing the FDA's Critical Path Initiative. He has served as President of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the Association for Medical School Pharmacology Chairs. In this episode, Dr. Woosley discusses how advances in new sciences, like genomics, require new drug development tools and public-private collaborations to bring safer and more effective medicines to market.  He also discusses C-Path’s groundbreaking work in support of the FDA's Critical Path Initiative.

"Some place where the industry and the regulators and the patients can come together, . . . where these pre-competitive, applied science challenges can be met, is missing right now. We're all doing very good work, but it needs to be increased and it needs to be coordinated."
—Raymond L. Woosley

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Research at the interface of industry, academia and regulatory science
Next-generation biomarkers for detecting kidney toxicity
Innovative Medicines Initiative site
Critical Path Initiative

NEW CANCER RESEARCH: Promising Developments
Dr. Daniel P. Petrylak is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and program director of the Genitourinary Oncology section in the division of Hematology and Oncology, at Columbia University Medical Center. This week, Petrylak discusses recent results of new cancer drugs presented at the ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) meetings in Chicago.

"The only way to properly answer these questions is through clinical trials. And although these may be expensive to do in the short term, in the long term we’re going to be having cost savings."
—Daniel Petrylak

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Ipilimumab Improves Survival for Patients with Metastatic Melanoma
Cancer Immunotherapies Coming of Age

THE HUMAN GNOME PROJECT: After 10 Years, What's Next?
Dr. Stephen Eck, M.D., Ph.D., is a Hematologist/Oncologist at Eli Lilly & Company with experience in drug development both in academic and commercial settings. Dr. Eck joined Lilly in 2007 as Vice President of Translational Medicine & Pharmacogenomics. In 2009, Dr. Eck assumed leadership of the newly formed Tailored Therapeuttics Hub, a group dedicated exclusively to the development of Lilly’s Personalized Medicine strategy. Dr. Eck reflects on the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Human Genome Project and the future of personalized medicine.

"We're now seeing many drugs in the mid-to-late stage pipelines of large companies and biotech companies that are the result of the human genome mapping. . . . I think we have to appreciate the fact that from finding the gene to getting the drug is a journey of several years. . . . Equally important, though, is that the genomic revolution has built some tools that will enable personalized medicine."
—Dr. Stephen Eck

RECOMMNEDED READING:
10 Years on, ‘The Genome Revolution Is Only Just Beginning’
Has the revolution arrived?

PODCAST:
Sean Khozin is a practicing physician in New York City and the co-founder of Hello Health, a web-based electronic medical record system and communication platform that enables doctors and patients to connect online via email, instant messaging, and video chat. This week, Khozin discusses over-the-counter genomics testing and the integration of technology into the direct care model.

"There's... an opportunity, once genomics medicine is more accurate, and once we have more evidence on what to do with that information, to incorporate that into the process of delivering care. But at the end of the day, what you need as a prerequisite is being able to establish a strong therapeutic relationship with your physician."
— Sean Khozin

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Hello Health, Goodbye Hassle
Walgreens Delays Selling Genetic Test
Walgreens’ Genetic Tests on Hold, Under Congressional Investigation

PODCAST:
Scott Gottlieb, M.D., a practicing physician and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute discusses the unanticipated problems and costs from the health care bill that are now emerging for the pharmaceutical industry.

"If a drug has been on the market for a long period of time, and has taken a lot of price increases over that time, they have to pay that discount back to the government . . . so drug companies can actually be in a situation where they are rebating more than 100% of the revenue of of a product back to the government."
— Scott Gottlieb

RECOMMNEDED READING:
The Drug Stock Sell-Off
Lilly’s Health-Care Costs Set Stage for Drugmakers

PODCAST:
David Gratzer, a practicing physician and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, discusses First Lady Michelle Obama's task force recommendations on childhood obesity, which were released on Tuesday, May 11, 2010.

"Where I disagree with Michelle Obama is her final recommendation. . .Rather than trying to get the federal government to fix the federal government [lunch] program that doesn't work particularly well, I would devolve this over to the state government—not unlike welfare, which was done 14 years ago—and let the state governments experiment."
— David Gratzer

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Getting It Right on Obesity
White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President

PODCAST:
Art Carden is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Business at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition, he is an Adjunct Fellow with the Independent Institute and a member of the Adjunct Faculty of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. This week, Carden discusses his research on how Wal-Mart's revolutionary product distribution system sharply lowers food prices facing consumers—and may also affect obesity rates in the U.S.

"If I know that someone else is going to pick up the bill for the heart attack I'm going to have someday because of my decision to supersize my meal, then the cost to me of supersizing that meal is lower, then I'm going to do it. If I know that I'm going to have to foot the entire bill for my heart attack, then I have less of an incentive to supersize my meal."
— Art Carden

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Wal-Mart's Weight Effect
Supersizing Supercenters? The Impact of Wal-Mart Supercenters on Body Mass Index and Obesity

PODCAST:
Peter Suderman is an associate editor of Reason magazine, where he writes regularly on health-care, tech policy, and pop culture. He discusses the unintended consequences of state health care reform efforts in Tennessee, Maine, and Massachusetts—and the implications for recently passed federal legislation.

"For a lot of people, the penalty is not going to be sufficient reason to purchase insurance. . .we're going to see a lot of stories about how you can game the system and a lot of stories about people who do this successfully and save money."
— Peter Suderman

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Health Care's History of Fiscal Folly
The Lie of Fiscal Responsibility
How Democrats used deceptive accounting to make history with health care reform.
The States’ Failed Experiments
The major provisions of ObamaCare have already been tried. And they don’t look good

PODCAST:
Scott Harrington, a health insurance expert and professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, explains how one of the central provisions in the legislation—a mandate for all U.S. citizens to have health insurance or pay a fine—is likely to play out once the mandate takes affect in 2014.

"What we should try to work for under the existing regulation is to try to make sure that regulations are developed that really emphasize and preserve state and regional flexibility so that we don't end up having a system where under some mechanism the different state and regional exchanges are taking orders from Washington."
—Scott Harrington

RECOMMNEDED READING:
Demonizing the Insurance Industry Is Not the Answer
The Adverse-Selection Problem
Current Democratic health-care proposals will have unintended consequences—bad ones

PODCAST:
Tevi Troy is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute, and a writer and consultant on health care and domestic policy. He is the former Deputy Secretary of United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the administration of George W. Bush.

"The way that the [health care] legislation is implemented could have a real impact on whether we can have market-based reforms in the future . . . And I hope that in the implementation process, you see a lot more transparency and give consumers options."
—Tevi Troy

RECOMMNEDED READING:
With Obamacare, implementation is tricky
Tevi Troy Discussing the Health Care Bill on Fox and Friends

PODCAST:
Stephen T. Parente is an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance in the Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota where he specializes in health economics, health insurance, medical technology evaluation and health information technology. He has extensive experience directing empirical analyses utilizing primary and secondary data bases and is acknowledged as a national expert on using administrative databases, particularly Medicare and health insurer data, for health policy research.

"As the [health] bill evolves and more things are added to it . . . I think it becomes a different dynamic of what the U.S. can actually afford and then maybe a high deductible health credit is our only way out to keep some sort of a lid on [costs] without it exploding."
—Stephen T. Parente

RECOMMNEDED READING:
The Uninsured: It Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better
Another Trillion?
The CBO may have underestimated the cost of health reform.

PODCAST:
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president American Action Forum and Commissioner on the Congressionally-chartered Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Since 2001, he has served in a variety of important policy positions. During 2001-2002, he was the Chief Economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (where he had also served during 1989-1990 as a Senior Staff Economist). At CEA he helped to formulate policies addressing the 2000-2001 recession and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. From 2003-2005 he was the 6th Director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which provides budgetary and policy analysis to the U.S. Congress.

"The presumption with the credit agencies has always been that the US will get its act together, slow the growth of spending, and it will get rid of these large deficits. If we pass this [health care] bill, we will have taken a decisive step in the wrong direction." – Douglas Holtz-Eakin

Recommended Reading:
Health Care Reform and the Numbers, American Action Forum, 03-10-10
Reconciliation isn’t the Answer to Health Reform, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum, 03-10-10
Testimony of Douglas Holtz-Eakin
United States Senate Committee on the Budget

PODCAST:
Tomas Philipson, chairman of the Manhattan Institute’s Project FDA, professor at the Harris School for Public Policy at the University of Chicago, former Bush Administration Senior Economic Advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during 2003-04, and Senior Economic Advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2004-05, talks to Paul Howard about comparative effectiveness research

Recommended Reading:
The Blue Pill Or The Red Pill?, Tomas Philipson, Forbes.com, 1-14-10
The Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research on Health and Health Care Spending, Anirban Basu, Tomas J. Philipson, January 2010

PODCAST:
Richard Amerling, MD, Director of Outpatient Dialysis at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute, about impending severe cuts in funding for dialysis due to take effect in January, 2011. Dr. Amerling says these cuts will lead to rationing of certain medicines used currently for these patients, and may force some dialysis units out of business.

Recommended Reading:
Doctors Are Like Frogs Being Slowly Boiled, Richard Amerling, Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor, 11-3-09

Recommended Links:
What do doctors fear the most about Obama Care?, NewsMax.TV
AAPS Director and Member on Glenn Beck Show, Fox News

PODCAST:
Paul Offit, MD, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Offit is also the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about seasonal flu vaccines and shortages, H1N1, and what lessons we can learn from our first brush with a global pandemic since the U.S. began upgrading its capacity to produce vaccine and respond to flu pandemics several years ago.

Recommended Reading:
Inoculated Against Facts, Paul Offit, New York Times, 3-31-08
Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure, Paul Offit, September 2008

PODCAST:
David Gratzer, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about his new broadside, “Why Obama’s government takeover of health care will be a disaster”

"Some countries spend less on healthcare but the way they have gone about doing that is by rationing care- everything is free, nothing is readily available." – David Gratzer

Recommended Reading:
"Why Obama’s government takeover of health care will be a disaster", David Gratzer, Encounter Books, November 2009

PODCAST:
Mary Kate Scott, founder and CEO of Scott & Co, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the retail clinic model and what the future of the model may hold for consumer-driven health care.

"They have looked at healthcare from the consumer or the patients point of view and have thought about what is it that that patient would really like to experience in healthcare?" – Mary Kate Scott

LINKS:
www.MaryKateScott.com

PODCAST:
Stephen T. Parente, Academic Director, Medical Industry Leadership Institute Carson School Of Management, Finance & Insurance, University of Minnesota, and Tarren Bragdon, adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress about "Healthier Choice: An Examination of Market-Based Reforms for New York's Uninsured".

"Only 5 states have Guaranteed Issue and Community Rating and they all have very expensive small individual insurance markets. 35 other states have a much more competitive flexible market…it’s more the case of Congress swimming against the tide of what’s happening in the states." – Tarren Bragdon

RECOMMENDED READING:
"Healthier Choice: An Examination of Market-Based Reforms for New York's Uninsured", Stephen T. Parente and Tarren Bragdon, September 22, 2009

PODCAST:
Scott Harrington, professor of health-care management and insurance and risk management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress about healthcare co-ops.

"The basic idea is that the government would subsidize at the state or regional level some co-operative health insurance organization.." – Scott Harrington

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

LINKS:
http://www.scottharringtonphd.com/

RECOMMENDED READING:
Fact-Checking the President on Health Insurance, Scott Harrington, Wall Street Journal, 9-14-09
Health Co-ops: Slow Road to Government Care, Scott Harrington, Wall Street Journal, 8-19-09
What the States’ Experience with Mandates Should Tell Us about Universal Healthcare Coverage, Scott Harrington, The American, 8-11-09
Reform Needs Healthy Life Incentives, Scott Harrington, Wall Street Journal, 6-29-09
The 'Public Plan' Would Be the Only Plan, Scott Harrington, Wall Street Journal, 6-16-09

PODCAST:
John Cochrane, professor of finance at the University of Chicago and an adjunct fellow at the Cato Institute, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress about what to do about preexisting conditions.

"Twenty years ago if you got a long term disease there wasn’t much we could do for you so you weren’t that expensive." – John Cochrane

RECOMMENDED READING:
What to Do About Pre-existing Conditions, John Cochrane, Wall Street Journal, 8-14-09
Health-Status Insurance, John Cochrane, Cato Institute, 2-18-09

PODCAST:
Megan McArdle, is a journalist and blogger for The Atlantic, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress about the difference between rationing through price signals in the market and rationing through government agencies.

"The people who are doing the allocation don’t actually have the same incentives as the people for whom they’re doing the rationing." – Megan McArdle

RECOMMENDED READING:
Asymmetrical Information, Megan McArdle’s blog, The Atlantic
Rationing By Any Other Name, Megan McArdle, The Atlantic, 8-10-09

PODCAST:
David Hyman, Director of the Epstein Program in Health Law and Policy at the University of Illinois, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress on competition in health insurance markets.

"What makes a market competitive is that there are lots of players in it and none of them have market power, the ability to dictate terms to other participants" – David

RECOMMENDED READING:
Health Insurance: Market Failure or Government Failure?, David A. Hyman , U Illinois Law & Economics Research Paper, April 6, 2009
Malpractice Payouts and Malpractice Insurance, David Hyman, Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, 2008

PODCAST:
James Capretta, fellow in the Economics and Ethics Program of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the most problematic aspects of healthcare legislation on Capitol Hill.

"The bills that are moving in Congress are structurally flawed for one major reason- they essentially force Americans into government approved insurance with the premiums rising at a pretty rapid rate that will be costly for a lot of people” – James Capretta

RECOMMENDED READING:
Obamacare: It's Even Worse Than You Think, Weekly Standard, James C. Capretta and Yuval Levin, 8-3-09
Wrong Big Picture, Dangerous Fine Print, National Review Online, James Capretta and Tevi Troy, 7-31-09
The House Bill Costs Far More Than $1 Trillion, Kaiser Health News, James Capretta, 7-24-09

PODCAST:
David Gratzer, a physician and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the public plan option and what dangers it presents.

“The public plan option would be at an unfair advantage over other plans…it would be reimbursing doctors at a fraction of the price others do” –David Gratzer

RECOMMENDED READING:
'Cost': Health Care's Four-Letter Word, Forbes.com, 07-24-09
Regulation, Not Size, Is Health Care's Biggest Problem, Washington Examiner, 07-22-09
A Medicare-Style Public Option in Healthcare Would Kill Private Insurance, U.S. News and World Report, 07-17-09
Improving Our Tangled Healthcare Mess, The Boston Globe, 07-13-09

PODCAST:
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for RealClearMarkets.com, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the Democrats legislation in the House of Representatives to reform healthcare markets.

“What is so frustrating and maddening about this bill is the employers have to provide the same kind of coverage that is in the health exchange plan or the public plan which is a gold plated plan… if employers offered a simple, catastrophic plan…that would not be permitted.”- Diana Furchtgott-Roth

RECOMMENDED READING:
A Very Unhealthy Health Bill, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, RealClearMarkets, 07-16-09
Socialized Medicine Through the Eyes of a Recipient, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, RealClearMarkets, 06-25-09
We Face Major Healthcare Choices, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, RealClearMarkets, 06-04-09

PODCAST:
Elias Zerhouni, senior fellow in the Global Health Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and former director the U.S. National Institutes of Health, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about U.S. leadership in biomedical innovation, the role of innovation in healthcare reform, and what the U.S. can do to ensure that it can remain the leader in biomedical innovation in the 21st century.

PART I | PART II

"It's an era of… precision medicine, no longer can you have a one size fits all type of medicine if you want to be effective in both at providing good healthcare and at a reasonable cost" – Elias Zerhouni

RECOMMENDED READING:
The Promise of Personalized Medicine, NIH Medline Plus, Winter 2007
Extracting Knowledge From Science: A Conversation With Elias Zerhouni, Health Affairs, May/June 2006
Translational and Clinical Science — Time for a New Vision, Elias Zerhouni, New England Journal of Medicine, October 2005

PODCAST:
Gail Wilensky, an economist and a senior fellow at Project HOPE, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about arguments that the President and members of Congress have made arguing for a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers and what other models are available to improve choice and competition in health insurance markets.

"I believe people who reference the public plan as a way to hold down costs are assuming that the public plan would use the power of a very forceful government to set below market rates as in the case in Medicare and that really is something that would put the private plans at a real disadvantage.” – Gail Wilensky

RECOMMENDED READING:
The Policies And Politics Of Creating A Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research Center, Gail Wilensky, Business Economics, Gail Wilensky
Reforming Medicare's Physician Payment System, Gail Wilensky, 2-12-09
Value-Based Insurance Design, Michael E. Chernew, Allison B. Rosen and A. Mark Fendrick, 1-30-07

PODCAST:
Stephen Parente, Academic Director, Medical Industry Leadership Institute Carson School Of Management, Finance & Insurance, University of Minnesota, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about his idea for medical banking.

“No matter what money moves in the healthcare system today, it must go through banks” - Steve Parente

RECOMMENDED READING:
Health Information Technology and Financing’s Next Frontier: The Potential of Medical Banking, Stephen Parente, Business Economics, January 2009

PODCAST:
Joseph Antos, the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about health spending disparities across the U.S. and what they tell us about American healthcare.

“One of the most important things we can do is give patients better information about what is going on” -Joseph Antos

RECOMMENDED READING:
What Can a Texas Town Teach Us About Healthcare?, Joseph Antos, The Enterprise Blog, 6-1-09
The Cost Conundrum, Atul Gawande, The New Yorker, 6-1-09
Obama Targets Wrong Tax for Health Reform, Joseph Antos, the Detroit News, 5-30-09
Uncle Sam, M.D., AEI Scholars on Health Care and Pharmaceutical Reform, April 2009

PODCAST:
Sidney Taurel, former CEO and Chairman of Eli Lilly, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the future of the pharmaceutical industry, the future of healthcare, and the importance of thinking of healthcare as an investment in human capital.

RECOMMENDED READING:
From the Broad Brush to the Fine Point: How to Enable Personalized Medicine, Sidney Taurel, 12-12-08

PODCAST:
Betsy McCaughey, Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and former Lt. Governor of New York State, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the truth about healthcare reforms that have been proposed.

“We should not be thinking about healthcare as a cost problem, it’s much more constructive to think of it as a growth industry. . . we’re not in the middle of a healthcare spending crisis."- Betsy McCaughey

RECOMMENDED READING:
Obama's Voodoo Health Economics, Wall Street Journal, 6-5-09
The Attack On Doctors' Hippocratic Oath, Investor’s Business Daily, 4-29-09
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey, Bloomberg News, 2-9-09

PODCAST:
Dana Goldman, Senior Principal Researcher at the RAND Corporation, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about misconceptions on how to cut healthcare costs.

“There’s evidence that would suggest that we’re wasting 30% of our dollars but without knowing which dollar and which is being wasted, you run the risk that if you cut by 30% you will harm people’s health.” – Dana Goldman

RECOMMENDED READING:
Regulating Drug Prices, Dana P. Goldman, Darius N. Lakdawalla, Pierre-Carl Michaud, Neeraj Sood, Robert J. Lempert, Ze Cong,Han de Vries, Italo Gutierrez, January 2009
U.S. Pharmaceutical Policy in a Global Marketplace, Darius N. Lakdawalla, Dana P. Goldman, Pierre-Carl Michaud, Neeraj Sood, Robert J. Lempert, Ze Cong, Han de Vries, Italo Gutierrez, December 16, 2008
The Effect Of Regulation On Pharmaceutical Revenues: Experience In Nineteen Countries, Neeraj Sood, Han de Vries, Italo Gutierrez, Darius N. Lakdawalla, and Dana P. Goldman, December 2008
Life Expectancy Is Better Than Age as a General Predictor of Health Care Expenditures, Baoping Shang, Dana P. Goldman, April 2008
Modeling the Health and Medical Care Spending of the Future Elderly, Dana P. Goldman, David M. Cutler, Paul G. Shekelle, Jay Bhattacharya, Baoping Shang, Geoffrey F. Joyce, Michael Hurd, Dawn Matsui, Sydne Newberry, Constantijn (Stan) Panis, Michael W. Rich, Catherine K. Su, Emmett B. Keeler, Darius N. Lakdawalla, Matthew E. Chernew, Feng Pan, Eduardo Ortiz, Robert H. Brook, A. M. Garber, Shannon Rhodes, 2008
Socioeconomic Differences in the Adoption of New Medical Technologies, D. Goldman and J. Smith, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 95, No. 2, 2005

PODCAST:
Regina Herzlinger, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the state of the healthcare marketplace in the U.S.

“The first rule of any market is that consumers by things for themselves and that’s violated in healthcare because we have this arcane tax law that promotes agents who do or buy for us.” – Regina Herzlinger

RECOMMENDED READING:
Can the United States Provide Health Care For All?, McKinsey & Company, 05-18-09
Health Care Reform that Will Kill the U.S. Economy, Huffington Post, 04-27-09
Creating a Real Healthcare Market, The Boston Globe, 02-18-09

PODCAST:
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former CBO director, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the principles and priorities policymakers should follow in order to achieve sustainable healthcare reform.

“It should be the case that value and reforms to the delivery system come first, expansion in coverage comes second”- Douglas Holtz-Eakin

RECOMMENDED READING:
Forging a New Plan For Health Care: Principles and Priorities for Sustainable Reform

PODCAST:
Dr. Tom Price, U.S Representative (R-GA), talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the politics of health reform in Congress and how we can move towards a more patient centered healthcare reform system.

"A lot of the reforms that we talked about seem to make it their goal to make certain that everyone receives exactly the same thing…The problem is that each and every individual patient... is different even though they may have the same diagnosis. What we need is system that is responsive to patients needs and their families needs but is not a cookie cutter kind of system which is what we see in other nations."
— Dr.Tom Price, U.S. Representative (R-GA)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

LINKS:
Official Website of Rep. Tom Price
Republican Study Committee

RECOMMENDED READING:
GOP Should Fight Health Care Rationing, Dr. Tom Price, Wall Street Journal, 1-7-09
Getting health care reform right, Dr. Tom Price, Washington Times, 4-1-09
To Reform, Create a Real Marketplace, Dr. Tom Price, Politico, 5-3-09
H.R. 2626: Comprehensive Health Coverage And Reform Enhancement Act of 2007, Rep. Tom Price, 6-7-07

PODCAST:
William Winkenwerder, former assistant secretary of health affairs at the Department of Defense, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about public and private sector examples of successful health care innovation and what we can learn from them for the debate over health care reform.

"The U.S. has been, far and away, the leader in investment in new medical technologies, new treatments, new pharmaceuticals... and the world has benefited from that."
— Dr. William Winkenwerder, Jr.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

RECOMMENDED READING:
The Wrong Stimulus for Health Care, William Winkenwerder, Jr. and Grace-Marie Turner, National Review Online, 02-10-09
Casualties of War—Military Care for the Wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan, Atul Gawande, New England Journal of Medicine, 12-09-04

PODCAST:
Arnold Kling, economist and author, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about rising health care costs, why insurance now pays for routine health care expenses, and how we can promote innovation and competition in markets dominated by 3rd party payers.

"In this country, 90 percent of personal healthcare spending is paid for by third parties…so that means we are insulated from the financial consequences of our medical decisions."
— Arnold Kling

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

LINKS:
EconLog
ArnoldKling.com

RECOMMENDED READING:
Insulation vs. Insurance, Arnold Kling, Cato Unbound, 1-8-07
Crisis of Abundance, Arnold Kling, 2006

PODCAST:
Dan Petrylak, associate professor of medicine and director of the genitourinary oncology program at the Columbia University Medical Center, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about the future of cancer care, and how to make better, more effective treatments a reality.

"Realistically, what we would like to do is to extend life, but to extend life with the best possible quality."
— Dan Petrylak

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

LINKS:
Project FDA
Cancer Drug Development and Approval
The Cancer Genome Atlas
Medicines in Development for Cancer 2009

RECOMMENDED READING:
Borrow From The HIV Battle Plan To Help Win War Against Cancer, Tomas Philipson, Investor's Business Daily, 03-14-09

PODCAST:
Evan Falchuk, president of Best Doctors, talks to Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress, about how we define "the best" in health care and how can we leverage individual excellence to drive system wide improvements.

"If you're ill you don't need a Congressional hearing... you just need to get the right diagnosis and treatment and the system should be fixated on that problem not on the particular mechanism of reimbursement"
— Evan Falchuck

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

LINKS:
Best Doctors: www.bestdoctors.com
See First Blog: www.seefirstblog.com
Atal Gawande: www.gawande.com

RECOMMENDED READING:
Why 'Quality' Care is Dangerous, Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband, Wall Street Journal, 04-08-09