The National Journal discusses conditions for strengthening America's health care ecosystem.
Health care represents nearly 18 percent of the nation's GDP, and produces significant macroeconomic drivers such as innovation, R&D, and millions of jobs over the long term. Such a significant part of our
economy, not to mention our individual and collective health, must be understood in the context of an interconnected system facing significant challenges that are not limited to any one sector. Changes
in policy in the coming years that impact one area in the health care ecosystem can have effects across the spectrum of care delivery, patient outcomes, and medical progress.
Join National Journal for a discussion on the state of the health care ecosystem, the connections between the numerous issues that lie ahead, the consequences of policy and business decisions, and the innovative solutions that can help strengthen the ecosystem for the
future.
Opening Remarks:
Victoria Lion Monroe, Senior Vice President, National Journal
Moderator:
Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, Health, NBCNews.com and Today.com
Keynote Panelists:
The Honorable Donna Christensen, Congresswoman (D-VI)
Participant:
Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, Brookings Institution
Panelists:
Chris Coburn, Executive Director, Cleveland Clinic Innovations
Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Freda C. Lewis-Hall, M.D., DFAPA, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer
Bio
The Honorable Donna Christensen
The Honorable Donna M. Christensen is serving her eighth term as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the U.S. Virgin Islands. She is the first female physician in the history of the U.S. Congress, the first woman to represent an offshore Territory, and the first woman Delegate from the United States Virgin Islands. She serves as an Assistant Minority Whip in the Democratic Caucus.
In the 112th Congress, Delegate Christensen serves on the following House Committees, Subcommittees and Caucuses: She is a Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittees on Oversight and Communications and Technology. Congresswoman Christensen was the first Delegate to Congress in history to serve on the exclusive Energy and Commerce Committee, which she first did in the 111th Congress. The Energy and Commerce Committee covers a wide range of issues to include health, energy independence, climate change, telecommunications, broadband and commercial and consumer issues with oversight over many federal departments and agencies to include the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Commerce, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Communications Commission.
The Subcommittee on Oversight is responsible for agencies, departments, and programs within the jurisdiction of the full committee and for conducting investigations within such jurisdiction. The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is responsible for interstate and foreign telecommunications including but not limited to all telecommunication and information transmission by internet, broadband, broadcast, radio, wire, microwave, satellite or other modes.
Although she is no longer a Member, Congresswoman Christensen closely monitors the activities of the House Committee on Natural Resources, where she served for 14 years and where she served as both Chair and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife in previous Congresses. The Subcommittee on Insular Affairs has jurisdiction over the affairs of the offshore territories, to include the U.S. Virgin Islands, which she represents in the Congress.
Delegate Christensen is the First Vice-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and chairs the Congressional Black Caucus’ Health Braintrust, which oversees and advocates minority health issues nationally and internationally. She is a Member of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues; Member of the Steering Committee of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus; Member of the Progressive Caucus; Member of the Congressional Rural Caucus; Member of the Friends of the Caribbean Caucus; Member of the Coastal Caucus; Member of the Coast Guard Caucus, Member of the Congressional Fire Caucus and a Member of the Congressional National Guard and Reserve Caucus.
She was born in 1945 to the late Judge Almeric Christian and Virginia Sterling Christian. She earned a Bachelor of Science in 1966 at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. She earned an M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) in 1970 from the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She interned at Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, California from 1970 to 1971 and did her residency in family medicine at Howard University Medical Center from 1973 to 1974. She became a board certified physician in 1977.
Christensen began her medical career in the Virgin Islands in 1975 as an emergency room physician. She served as staff physician at the Maternal & Child Health program, Medical Director of the Nesbitt Clinic in Frederiksted, Director of the Frederiksted Health Center, Director of Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning, served as the Medical Director of the St. Croix Hospital (later renamed Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center) and rounded out her medical career as the Territorial Assistant Commissioner of Health and as the Acting Commissioner of Health. She maintained a private practice in family medicine from 1975 until her election to Congress in 1996.
As a registered member of the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands , she has served as Democratic National Committeewoman, member of the Democratic Territorial Committee, Delegate to Democratic Conventions from 1984 to present, Member, Platform Committee of the Democratic National Committee from 1988 to present. She was elected to the Virgin Islands Board of Education from 1984 to 1986 and was appointed as a member to the Virgin Islands Status Commission from 1988 to 1992.
Christensen is a member of the National Medical Association, the Virgin Islands Medical Society, the Caribbean Studies Association, the Caribbean Youth Organization and the Virgin Islands Medical Institute. Prior to her election to Congress she served on a variety of church and civic associations.
She is the mother of two daughters, Rabiah Green George and Karida Green and the grandmother of Nia Elena Hamilton, Kobe George, Nealia Williams and Layla Marie George. She is the granddaughter of the late renowned Virgin Islands educator Elena Christian.
Chris Coburn
Chris Coburn has served as executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI), Cleveland Clinic’s corporate venturing arm, since it was established in 2000. Cleveland Clinic’s 35 spin-off companies have raised more than $450 million in equity investment and, in 2010, CCI was recognized by Global Corporate Venturing as one of the world’s top 30 health corporate venturing organizations.
Mr. Coburn serves on the board of directors of Autonomic Technologies, Cleveland HeartLab, Explorys, PeriTec, and BioEnterprise. He is a former vice president and general manager of Battelle Memorial Institute, director of the U.S. Enrichment Corporation, and author of the only comprehensive profile of public sector commercialization initiatives. Mr. Coburn has consulted, testified, and spoken on technology commercialization throughout North America and in more than 20 countries. He is a member of the Ohio’s 3rd Frontier Advisory Board and a trustee of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Hathaway Brown School, and the City Club of Cleveland. Mr. Coburn received his B.A. in political science from John Carroll University and his MPA from George Washington University.
Maggie Fox
Maggie Fox is a senior writer on health issues for both NBCNews.com and Today.com. She previously was the managing editor of healthcare and technology at National Journal, where she managed two teams of specialist journalists, moderated panels at live events, and wrote breaking news, analysis, and columns for the magazine, website, and National Journal Daily. Before joining National Journal, Ms. Fox was the global health and science editor for Reuters, where she established an award-winning and agenda-setting science and health file for the news agency. She has also served as a correspondent in Hong Kong and Beirut for a variety of news organizations, covered the ouster of former president Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, the Tiananmen Square protests in China, and is one of the few people to have interviewed Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. Ms. Fox has received awards for her coverage of mad cow disease, swine flu, vaccination controversies, and Japan’s economic development.
Scott Gottlieb
Scott Gottlieb is a practicing physician and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, economics and social welfare.
From 2005 to 2007, Dr. Gottlieb served as deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and before that, between 2003 and 2004, as the FDA’s director of medical policy development and senior advisor to the FDA commissioner. He left FDA in the spring of 2004 to work on implementation of the new Medicare Drug Benefit as a senior adviser to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he supported the agency's policy work on quality improvement and coverage and payment decision-making.
Dr. Gottlieb has authored more than 300 articles that have appeared in leading medical journals as well as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and Forbes. He has held editorial positions at the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association and appears regularly as a guest commentator on CNBC.
He earned his B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University and his M.D. from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Gottlieb practices medicine as an attending physician at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut where he is an internist on the hospital’s inpatient medical wards.
Freda C. Lewis-Hall
Freda is Pfizer's Chief Medical Officer and a member of the company's Executive Leadership team. As the company's senior physician, she leads Pfizer Medical, the division responsible for the safe, effective and appropriate use of Pfizer human health products around the world.
Before joining Pfizer in 2009, Freda held senior leadership positions in medical affairs and new product development with Vertex, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia and Lilly. Prior to joining the research-based biopharmaceutical industry, she led research projects for the National Institutes of Health and served as vice chairperson and associate professor of the Department of Psychiatry at Howard University College of Medicine. Trained as a psychiatrist, she launched her medical career in frontline patient care and became well known for her work on the effects of mental illness on families and communities, and on issues of health care disparities.
In 2010, Freda was appointed by the Obama Administration to the inaugural Board of Governors for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. She also serves on the boards of The Institute of Medicine's Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation; The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health; The Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows; the Society for Women's Health Research; and the American Heart Association's "Power to End Stroke" initiative. She is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
In 2010, Dr. Lewis-Hall was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University System of Maryland. In 2011, she was selected as the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association's "Woman of the Year." Also in 2011, she received the "Power to End Stroke" Legacy Award. She has been named among the nation's 75 Most Powerful Women in Business by Black Enterprise magazine and among the 25 Most Influential African-Americans in Health Care by Black Health magazine.
Dr. Lewis-Hall earned her undergraduate degree at The Johns Hopkins University and her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine. She and her husband Randy Hall reside in New York City and have three grown children.
Mark B. McClellan
In July 2007, Dr. Mark B. McClellan, Senior Fellow, became the Director of the Engelberg Center for Healthcare Reform at the Brookings Institution. In addition, Dr. McClellan is the Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies. Dr. McClellan previously served as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (2002-2004) and Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2004-2006). He also served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and senior director for health care policy at the White House (2001–2002). In these positions, he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy, including the development of the FDA’s Critical Path initiative, regulatory reforms to modernize pharmaceutical manufacturing and efficient risk-management methods to better address safety issues.
Victoria Lion Monroe
Victoria Lion Monroe rejoined National Journal in 2010 as senior vice president, and leads all advertising revenue strategies and implementation for print, digital and event sales. Additionally, Ms. Monroe oversees the collective marketing efforts to support the sales team, including NJG’s rebranding and redesign efforts launched in November 2010.
With over 23 years in Washington, DC, Ms. Monroe has a unique understanding of the legislative process coupled with a broad perspective of lobbying, communications and paid media strategies and objectives.
Ms. Monroe began working in Washington on Capitol Hill serving as a deputy press secretary in the House for Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) and then Senate Majority Whip Alan Cranston (D-CA). She then moved onto Cassidy & Associates, where she helped lead business development for the then fastest growing privately held lobbying firm in Washington. She later helped develop and implement strategies to successfully lobby on behalf of corporate and institutional clients. Seven years later, Ms. joined National Journal for the first time, where she led the extraordinary growth in their advocacy advertising programs and related marketing initiatives.
From 2002 – 2004, Ms. Monroe moved into the digital advocacy space with Mindshare Interactive leading a variety of accounts to develop and implement effective digital strategies impacting public policy and legislation. She then joined GMMB, a preeminent political consulting and advertising firm, managing their Washington media buying efforts with a special focus on the agency’s online media buying.
In 2008, Ms. Monroe worked at Congressional Quarterly as the associate publisher and vice president of advertising. After the company was bought by Roll Call and The Economist Group, she headed the combined CQ-RC Group advertising and marketing efforts until 2010 when she rejoined National Journal Group.
A graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, Ms. Monroe lives in Arlington, Va. with her two children.
U.S. Representatives Michael C. Burgess and Donna Christensen discuss the impending fiscal cliff and the potential impact of deep spending cuts. Burgess declares that the Affordable Care Act is one of few programs suitable for targeted cuts.
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