Christine Todd Whitman and Joe Hogan Join Mark Ganz to Lead Aspen Institute Health Stewardship Project
CORRECTED VERSION
Washington, DC, January 14, 2008 — The Aspen Institute has named Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, as co-chairs of the Aspen Health Stewardship Project. They join Mark Ganz, president and CEO of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield, in leading the new project to help transform health care.
Launched this past fall, the project is a major initiative to reframe and broaden the national dialogue on health care reform leading up to the 2008 presidential election and beyond. The project is developing principles to help chart the wisest course for the nation’s reform efforts and questions to pose to the presidential candidates, all of which will be published, along with the candidates’ responses.
“We’re calling on the candidates and the public at large to prioritize stewardship of our shared health resources in the same sense that we prioritize stewardship of the environment,” Gov. Whitman said.
In addition to the co-chairs, the project features an advisory board that includes doctors, scholars, health policy experts and information technology thought leaders. The full list of advisory board members is provided below. The project also is supported by a team of research faculty from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.
Ganz, who helped conceive of the project, said it seeks to expand the health care debate to address not just the symptoms but the root causes of the nation’s broken system.
“One of our main goals is to prompt the candidates to consider how to address the shortcomings of the health care system beyond the issue of universal access,” Ganz said. “Only by shifting the culture underlying our health care system can we make real progress toward a system that is affordable and sustainable, and that delivers quality- and customer-oriented health care to every American.”
Project Director Michelle McMurry said that as the presidential candidates consider how to improve the nation’s health care system and debate the relative merits of their proposals, they must bear in mind that “access is not enough.”
“The stewardship project picks up where the insurance debate leaves off and aims to give Americans the tools they need to take charge of their own health,” Dr. McMurry said.
Among other topics, the advisory board’s initial discussions have addressed the need for the nation to get serious about prevention; the importance of early detection of disease to enable more successful treatment; the implementation of electronic medical records; the rationale for transparency throughout the health care system; and the importance of measuring programs and treatment approaches, and finding ways to reward the most successful among them.
For more information on the Aspen Health Stewardship Project, contact Noah Bartolucci, project communications director, at (202) 736-2536 or noah.bartolucci@aspeninstitute.org. What follows is the project advisory board.
Adam Bosworth, founder and CEO, Keas Inc.
Donald Berwick, president and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Delos “Toby” Cosgrove, president and CEO, The Cleveland Clinic
Craig Fuller, executive vice president, APCO Worldwide
Mark Ganz, president and CEO of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield *
C. Martin Harris, chief information officer, Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare *
Robert Honigberg, chief medical officer, GE Healthcare
Mark Pauly, chair of the Health Care Systems Department, the Wharton School of Business
Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School
Franklin Raines, Vice Chairman, Revolution Health
Elizabeth Teisberg, associate professor, Darden Graduate School of Business, UVA
Christine Todd Whitman, founder and president, The Whitman Strategy Group *
* Co-Chairs
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