STATE of the UNION

The President clearly wants to "get moving" on reform of the health care system but tonight was not the night for any details. This is a fight that he will not back away from but he is calling a sort of time out if you will, a chance for tempers to cool and to re-examine the fundamentals. From his perspective those fundamentals include covering the uninsured, protecting Medicare, ending insurance company "abuses" and not raising the deficit any further. To me, we are back to square one---no discussion about improving the value of our investment , no attempt to focus on wellness and prevention, no talk of comparative effectiveness research so that we are making decisions based on good science and no mention of expanding primary care. Our School of Population Health cannot take a "time out"---in fact, we are pushing ahead each and every day. We will get many of our key courses on line by September 2010 and go from a regional school to a global one. We will launch the first of its kind Masters Degree in Chronic Care Management so that our graduates will be ready to tackle the Accountable Care Organization of the future. We will educate leaders to reduce the fourth leading cause of death in the nation---medical error!! We are MOVING now, we will not wait, we will "get the job done". I hope our elected leaders will follow us soon. Thanks and tell me what you think about reform too. DAVID NASH