Cambridge Health Alliance Physician Steffie Woolhandler to Present at President's Council on Bioethics

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NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE

June 2, 2008

Cambridge Health Alliance Physician Steffie Woolhandler to Present at President's Council on Bioethics

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop, MA…Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) announced today that physician and noted health policy expert Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, has been invited to speak before the President's Council on Bioethics. The Council, which advises the President of the United States on ethical issues related to advances in biomedical science and technology, will examine the efficacy of assorted health reform initiatives during its June meeting.

Dr. Woolhandler has conducted extensive research on the inequalities in health and health care, administrative costs in medicine, and national health insurance. She will present a reform proposal focused on single payer national health insurance. Also offering plans for reform will be Len Nichols, PhD, director of the health policy program for the New America Foundation, and James Capretta, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC. Each will discuss essential features of the respective reforms and will address the projected impact on access, cost, and quality.

In addition to serving as a physician at CHA, Dr. Woolhandler is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1986, she helped found Physicians for a National Health Program, a not-for-profit organization of physicians, medical students, and other health care professionals who support a national health insurance program.

The President's Council on Bioethics is appointed by the President and drawn from the fields of science and medicine, law and government, philosophy and theology, and other areas of the humanities and social sciences. Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, currently serves as chairman. For more information: http://bioethics.gov/

Cambridge Health Alliance is an innovative, award-winning health system that provides high quality care in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston’s metro-north communities. It includes three hospital campuses, more than 20 primary care and specialty practices, the Cambridge Public Health Dept., and the Network Health plan. CHA is a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate and is also affiliated with Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and Tufts University School of Medicine.