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Sen. Frist on Sen. Alexander’s Decision Not to Run in 2020
Dec 17Lamar Alexander’s unparalleled intellect, his unwavering commitment to commonsense Tennessee values, combined with his extraordinary willingness to do the hard work (he does more in a day than most do in a week!) has led to countless achievements that have improved our lives and dramatically enhanced our well-being. Senator Alexander has been a tireless servant…
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15 Years Later: How Well Are We Doing Addressing AIDS (Forbes)
Dec 1FORBES | This World AIDS Day, we celebrate the astounding progress made in the past 15 years! Thanks to PEPFAR— the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief—14.6 million people living with HIV (59%) have access to antiretroviral therapy. More than 2.4 million babies have been born HIV-free. Countless lives have been saved. This progress…
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Reading The Healthcare Tea Leaves In The 2018 Midterm Elections (Forbes)
Nov 29FORBES | The November elections left us with a lot to digest—it wasn’t the decisive “blue wave” that some were predicting, but the tea leaves did tell us some interesting things about what voters believe and value, particularly when it comes to healthcare. Interestingly, pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies found a notable phenomenon…
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The Latest In Blockchain In Healthcare: Top Takeaways From Distributed Health (Forbes)
Nov 13FORBES | Last week I had the honor of kicking off the third annual Distributed Health conference in Nashville, which brought together leaders in healthcare as well as blockchain innovators from across the nation. All were united by the shared belief that blockchain has transformative potential for health and healthcare, with changes already underway. Blockchain…
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The Future Of Healthcare Innovation And Why Government Matters (Forbes)
Nov 6FORBES | Why do politics matter to health? Because government, when focused, can do incredible things to move our health forward. Here are just two examples that I was directly involved with while in the United States Senate. Read more at Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrist/2018/11/06/the-future-of-healthcare-innovation-and-why-government-matters/#f00d712192d2
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Taking Root in Nashville – A New Collaborative to Green our Streets and Improve our Health
Oct 3Clean air, cooler streets, safer neighborhoods, improved health – these are all things we’d like for our city of Nashville. What do they all share in common? They are all goals that can be achieved in part through a larger urban tree canopy – and all are central to the mission of our new collaborative…
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70 Years Ago America Led The Largest Humanitarian Airlift In History: Today Would We Do The Same? (Forbes)
Sep 13FORBES | In June of 1948 there was a crisis in Berlin. The Soviet Union—one of four countries tasked with redeveloping Germany after its World War II loss—set up a blockade around the capital city. By cutting off food, water, electricity, and other supplies, the Soviets expected to take over a starved Berlin and expand…
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Fixing the opioid crisis requires the two things Congress hates most: Bipartisanship and government spending (NBC News)
Aug 27NBC NEWS | Practically every community in America, and most families, are facing the still-growing opioid epidemic that is tearing at the soul of our health and wellbeing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 115 Americans die each day from opioid-related overdoses, and research suggests that misuse of prescription opioids is a risk factor for heroinuse. It is…
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Make water a top global priority. It’s the best, cheapest way to save lives (USA Today)
Aug 15USA TODAY | This summer has seen the unprecedented and simultaneous outbreak of six of eight diseases posing the greatest threats to public health, according to the World Health Organization. You’d think that after the alarmingly fast spread of Ebola in West Africa just a few years ago, we’d have learned our lesson. Instead, the…
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Loneliness kills: A new public health crisis (and what we can do about it) (The Hill)
Jul 27THE HILL | A little-discussed condition raises the risk of premature death by up to 50 percent—making it a health hazard at least as significant as smoking and alcohol and more so than obesity. Yet many medical professionals haven’t heard about it, and the public remains largely in the dark. We’re talking about social isolation,…
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Murder In The Capitol: Honor The Fallen And Improve Mental Health (Forbes)
Jul 23FORBES | Twenty years ago tomorrow was one of the most memorable days in my U.S. Senate career. And it haunts me still. It doesn’t mark the anniversary of major legislation being signed or a bipartisan deal being struck. Rather, July 24, 1998, was the day our U.S. Capitol building was attacked by a mentally ill, armed individual who took…
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Rural Aging: Health and Community Policy Implications for Reversing Social Isolation (Bipartisan Policy Center)
Jul 23BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER | On June 7, 2018, Tivity Health’s Donato Tramuto and I convened a roundtable at the Bipartisan Policy Center to discuss challenges and potential solutions to address a little-discussed public health crisis: social isolation and our aging population. What many don’t realize is that social isolation could be an even bigger public health…
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Confirming Brett Kavanaugh Twelve Years Ago And His Prospects Today (Forbes)
Jul 11FORBES | Brett Kavanaugh will make a terrific Supreme Court Justice, and I know from firsthand experience. Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a photo of me with Kavanaugh taken over 12 years ago when then-Majority Whip Mitch McConnell and I spearheaded his Senate confirmation. Seeing that photo brought me back to my time as…
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Virtual Reality Isn’t Just For Gamers Anymore; It Will Change Your Health (Forbes)
Jul 10FORBES | I’ve got one big idea that can change your health. But first some history. Heart transplants were once rare. When I was training to be a heart transplant surgeon at Stanford, at every opportunity I would go to the operating room to observe and study my mentor (and the “father of heart transplantation”) Dr….
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Opinion: An Open Health Diplomacy Hand Works Better Than a Fist (Roll Call)
Jul 9ROLL CALL | Recent headlines have been filled with stories and images of parents being separated from their children by the U.S. government. This is not what our country represents. In fact, 15 years ago, we enacted the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, to do quite the opposite, and the program has gone…
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The Senate I led put country over party. This one must do the same for Robert Mueller. (Washington Post)
Jul 6WASHINGTON POST | When I retired from the U.S. Senate in 2007 as its majority leader, my parting words were a prayer for my colleagues to rise above the passions of the moment and protect the institution as a bulwark for our country’s enduring values. The Senate I served in was not devoid of partisanship,…
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Today’s Life-Saving Ebola Vaccine Was Spurred By The 2001 Anthrax And 2004 Ricin Attacks (Forbes)
Jun 14FORBES | Currently in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 25 people are suspected to have already died from Ebola in the Equateur province. Four cases have reached the provincial capital of Mbandaka, prompting fears that DRC is on the cusp of an urban epidemic. A few years ago, in the 2014 West African Ebola epidemic,…
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Biden & Frist: Now is not the time to cut off AIDS funding (CNN)
Jun 8CNN| Last month marked the 15th anniversary of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. The celebrations included an important announcement that didn’t receive enough attention: Today, 14 million people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to care are receiving lifesaving HIV treatment. When we worked alongside President George W. Bush in 2003 to usher PEPFAR…
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A ‘Safer Cigarette’ Doesn’t Prevent Premature Death And May Be Tracking You (Forbes)
May 31FORBES | When I operated on hearts and lungs every day to do my best to fix the underlying devastating and life-shortening disease, I’d always think, “If only this could be prevented.” And it can, by stopping smoking. Ever since we recognized the health risks of smoking tobacco nearly 75 years ago, the world’s doctors, policy makers,…
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The five things we must to do together to end the opioids epidemic (USA Today)
May 31USA TODAY | For the first time in history, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50. For the first time in nearly a quarter century, U.S. life expectancy has declined, driven by diseases of despair like alcoholism and drug addiction. And for the first time in a long time, policymakers and providers are serious…
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Yes, we can put chronic patients first and lower costs simultaneously (The Hill)
May 16The Hill | Our health-care system can be overwhelming for those of us in the best of health. This is especially true of those living with serious and life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer or heart disease — who are juggling multiple doctors, diagnoses, treatment regimens and social stressors. Patients cycle in and out of hospitals…
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Medicine As Currency For Peace: How Global Health Funding Could Change The World (Forbes)
May 3Forbes | I first met the virus as a young surgical resident in training. I read the initial 1981 report of five people in California who died of a mysterious, unnamed disease. The virus outsmarted and outran us. The first year, we watched helplessly as a few hundred people died. The next year, a few thousand,…
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A Tribute to Uwe Reinhardt: Remarks at the April 21st Memorial at Princeton University Chapel
Apr 21For each of the last 46 years, Uwe Reinhardt touched me like a father, a brother, a son, a friend. He walked by my side on every leg of my journey and supported me at every major turning point. These are the remarks I gave at his memorial service at Princeton on April 21 and shared…
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To Whom Much is Given, Much is Expected: Why U.S. Should Lead on Global Health (TEDMED)
Apr 12TEDMED | A life-changing story has been missed by the media and the general public. But it will be highlighted in the history books in future generations. The story is that for less than 1% of our federal budget, the United States since 1990 has led the world in reducing by half those living in…
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Opinion | Nashville’s transit plan will improve our health (The Tennessean)
Apr 12The Tennessean | Operating on a heart — opening the chest cavity, sawing through the breastbone, placing the patient on heart-lung bypass, and finally cutting into the body’s most vital muscle — is always the last resort. As heart surgeons, we tell our patients they can avoid such drastic surgery by acting to prevent heart…
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Diet quality should become a core SNAP objective (The Hill)
Mar 14THE HILL | As Congress considers reauthorizing SNAP as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, we believe it’s time to make nutrition a top priority for the program. First, we request that diet quality become a core SNAP objective. Specifically, we recommend eliminating sugar-sweetened beverages from the list of items that can be purchased with SNAP in…
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Notes from the Road: Hadza and Clean Water
Feb 9Tracy and I are in Africa for two-weeks: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature Conservancy (intersection nature and health) in conjunction with Pathfinder International (global women’s health). As chairman of Hope Through Healing Hands, I will explore how we can globally impact peoples’ well-being and…
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I’m Helping Found A National Health Care Movement. Let Me Tell You Why (Forbes)
Feb 7FORBES | Today the United States health care system is very sick. We have been debating health care policy fixes in America for decades but much of that time our public discussion has focused on unattainable all-or-nothing solutions. Such is the case today. With each side focused solely on their partisan version of the “cure,” we’ve…
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Notes from the Road: Tuungane Program
Feb 1Tracy and I are in Africa for two-weeks: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature Conservancy (intersection nature and health) in conjunction with Pathfinder International (global women’s health). As chairman of Hope Through Healing Hands, I will explore how we…
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Notes from the Road: Africa 2018
Jan 31It’s been many years since my first trip to Africa, but each trip changes me. I already know this trip will be no different. Tracy and I are here for two-weeks this time: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature…
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Fixing the wildfire funding problem starts with prevention (The Hill)
Jan 28THE HILL | America’s forests are the heart and lungs of our nation. Forests clean our drinking water and trees filter the air we all need, and the work of keeping them healthy shouldn’t suffer because we must also fight wildfire disasters. Unfortunately, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) are…
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Tennessee gubernatorial candidates discuss education in forum (The Tennessean)
Jan 21THE TENNESSEAN | On Tuesday night, Tennessee voters will have their first chance to hear from candidates running for governor on one of the most important topics for the future of our great state: Education. This first statewide forum featuring gubernatorial candidates from both political parties is being hosted by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE),…
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Alex Azar has the temperament, judgment, and focus to lead HHS (STAT)
Jan 9STAT | The secretary of HHS is one of the most important Cabinet positions in the federal government. The department has a budget of over $1 trillion and 70,000 employees, and its programs touch nearly every American. With such an extensive reach, the HHS secretary must be experienced managing complex and large organizations; possess broad knowledge across…
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Six Lessons from 50 Years of Heart Transplantation (LinkedIn Pulse)
Dec 19LINKED IN | December 3rd is a historic day in modern medical history – this year marked the 50th anniversary of the world’s first heart transplant. Once considered the stuff of science fiction, this miraculous procedure now saves thousands of lives each year, with 3,191 heart transplants performed in the United States in 2016 alone. The medical miracle of…
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What Tennessee Republicans and Democrats agree on: don’t smoke (The Tennessean)
Dec 13THE TENNESSEAN | On December 13th the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids released its annual report “Broken Promises to Our Kids,” which evaluates how states address the “enormous health problems caused by tobacco use in the United States.” One of the key metrics is funding, and I’m proud to report that – after many years of stagnant…
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World AIDS Day — let’s work with urgency to battle this disease (The Hill)
Dec 1THE HILL | The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is one of the most successful humanitarian relief efforts ever undertaken. It is directed at one of the world’s most daunting public health problems. AIDS strikes people in the prime of their lives, shatters families and communities, orphans children, and threatens the ability of…
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Opinion: We started PEPFAR. Politicizing AIDS would be a disaster (DEVEX)
Dec 1DEVEX | A decade and a half ago, we came together to bridge the political divide and address one of history’s worst public health crises. In 2002, 3.1 million people worldwide died of AIDS-related causes and 11 million children in sub-Saharan Africa had lost one or more parents to the disease. The AIDS epidemic was only getting…
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Hard Cases: Tennessee’s First Heart-Lung Transplant (Linked In)
Oct 25LINKED IN | One month after Christmas, in 1987, my surgical team and I prepared for Tennessee’s first heart-lung transplant. A determined mother, desperate to live, was flying to Tennessee to receive the heart and lungs from a young woman in Nashville whose own life had ended too soon. It was a bold step for…
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The indispensable role of America in the world (Salt Lake Tribune)
Oct 23SALT LAKE TRIBUNE |The challenges we face in the world today are different but no less severe: Chinese military activities in South China Sea, Russian aggression in Ukraine, Cyber-attacks, North Korean nuclear ambitions. But they also include softer threats ranging from unprecedented food insecurity and famines to mass migration and refugee flows to the threats…
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Reach Act will save lives, continue America’s moral leadership (Knoxville News Sentinel)
Oct 16KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL | Nearly 15 years ago, Congress passed a historic, bipartisan bill that has since provided life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment to nearly 12 million people and reversed the spread of this devastating disease worldwide. The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, better known today as PEPFAR, has been heralded as a model for how…
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Notes From The Road: Bob Marshall Log, August 2017
Sep 18Notes From The Road | The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex consists of three wilderness areas in Montana totaling over 1.5 million acres. Located in the northern Rocky Mountains along the Continental Divide, the region is as primitive as any found in the United States outside of Alaska. It’s also diverse, encompassing the dry and open…
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Children’s Health Insurance Program Demands Quick, Bipartisan Passage (Forbes)
Sep 14FORBES | Why would someone give up a career as a full-time surgeon to become an elected official? It was a question I was asked time and again during my two terms in the U.S. Senate. To me, the answer was always clear: I was searching for a way to make a positive impact on…
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Five bipartisan steps toward stabilizing our healthcare system with Andy Slavitt (Washington Post)
Sep 11WASHINGTON POST | At a meeting in California this spring, we sat down with a number of insurance company chief executives who are major participants in the Affordable Care Act exchanges. They asked us to carry back a message to Washington: Put partisanship aside and end federal uncertainty about support for the ACA; otherwise, they will…
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Bill Frist and Jill Biden: A call for better health and learning (The Tennessean)
Aug 26THE TENNESSEAN | At Carpenters Middle School in Blount County, exercise and reading go hand in hand. Nearly 200 students participate in the “Pedal Power” program, spending 20 minutes a day reading a book they select while riding a recumbent bike. Students say that when they are physically active while they learn, they notice a difference, with one…
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Put Out The Fire Instead Of Burning Exchanges To The Ground: Extend Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments (Forbes)
Aug 3FORBES | Eight years ago, former Democratic Senator John Breaux and I wrote: “Given the acrimony that’s developed over efforts to reform our nation’s health insurance system, many Americans wonder whether true bipartisan agreement on health reform can ever be possible. In short, it can.” Back then, we watched contentious debate over what came to be known…
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In Fight Against Extreme Poverty, Congress Must Now Protect America’s Leadership (Forbes)
Aug 3FORBES | A new report issued by the Joint Monitoring Program on Water Supply and Sanitation shows that 2.1 billion people don’t even have access to safe drinking water at home. More than twice that number—4.5 billion people, or a full 60% of earth’s population—live without a toilet that safely protects them from human waste….
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Bill Frist to Congress: Stand up for nature. Don’t starve conservation programs
Aug 3USA TODAY | I recently visited the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area—a gem of the national park system in my beloved home state of Tennessee. As I walked its trails, rode horses, camped and met with a wonderful cross-section of Americans along the way, I was grateful for our nation’s public lands…
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Six devastating effects of cutting CDC funding (The Hill)
Aug 3THE HILL | Congress will soon be faced with many momentous decisions that will affect the lives of Americans for years to come. One of the most critical threats to our health is the potential for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s (CDC) budget to be reduced to its lowest levels in 20 years…
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A New Model Of Community Care: Aspire Health And Transforming Advanced Illness Care (Forbes)
Aug 3FORBES | For loved ones with advanced illness such as cancer or heart disease or with severe symptoms from a chronic illness, especially in the last year or so of life, what we desperately want is for them to seamlessly receive high quality, compassionate care at home that keeps them comfortable and free from pain…
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The Science Behind How Nature Affects Your Health (Forbes)
Jun 15FORBES | Have you ever wondered how experiencing nature can improve your health and your life? Increasingly, healthcare and public health professionals are recognizing that the social determinants of health—including where we’re born, live, work, play and age—collectively have a far greater impact on our health outcomes than the healthcare delivery system. It’s estimatedthat healthcare services account…
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For Patients With Multiple Chronic Conditions, Improving Care Will Be A Bipartisan Effort (Health Affairs Blog)
Jun 1HEALTH AFFAIRS BLOG | While federal policy makers are undertaking controversial and divisive debates over the future of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans and Democrats have had a good track record of working together to improve health care delivery and payment frameworks. Most recently, the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 reformed Medicare’s physician…
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Updated Nutrition Labels Can Make Us Healthier Consumers (Forbes)
Apr 22FORBES | As health-minded consumers of food, I think we all deserve to know what is in the packaged food we buy. Giving consumers information to make their own choices sounds as American as apple pie, but somehow in today’s fractured political system, it’s become a major point of contention. For the health of our…
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As Congress Debates, What Steps Shall I Take?
Apr 21Written with Gary Dodd There’s a lot of uncertainty in healthcare today including changes to the Affordable Care Act and changes at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As healthcare professionals, we hope we are moving to a world of alternative payment models that will be focused on quality of care, not quantity of…
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Here’s how we can make Earth Day every day in Nashville (The Tennessean)
Apr 20THE TENNESSEAN | Earth Day matters — to you and your health. Earth Day was established in 1970 to make us think, for at least one day, about the health of our environment. We submit that every day should be Earth Day. Not just for the health of nature, but for your health and well-being. When 90 percent of a…
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The National Academy Of Medicine’s Vital Directions For Health: Forging a Path for our Future (Forbes)
Mar 21FORBES | Health is more than healthcare. Smart reform looks beyond the current conversation of repeal and replace. It must include an active and empowered consumer making choices that matter within a modern, connected, knowledge-driven system. That is the powerful message of the National Academy of Medicine’s pivotal report released today. Drawing on the expertise of 150…
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No. 1 killer of Nashville women may surprise you (The Tennessean)
Mar 21THE TENNESSEAN | If you were asked to name the No. 1 cause of death in women in Davidson County, what would you say? Some might suggest cancer, or perhaps Alzheimer’s. But the truth is that our number one “lady killer” is a condition that many consider a man’s disease. And what’s even more striking is that its early symptoms…
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Reconsider severe international affairs budget cuts (The Tennessean)
Mar 15TENNESSEAN | While music, faith, health care, and even hot chicken have made Nashville famous, we also have a robust hub of research, work, and advocacy for global health and development. Thanks to the dozens of humanitarian organizations providing excellent services for vulnerable populations worldwide, Vanderbilt’s Institute for Global Health research and development, and the missions…
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Bill Frist: Foreign Aid Saves Lives—And Makes America Safer (Christianity Today)
Mar 6CHRISTIANITY TODAY | For the past two decades, we have had a front-row seat in the bipartisan movement to end worldwide preventable, treatable diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and to make poverty history. Since 1990, the world has cut in half maternal and child deaths, infectious diseases, and poverty as well as turned the…
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Tackling Tobacco Use In The Volunteer State: Let’s Start With Tennessee Quit Week (FORBES)
Feb 14Forbes | In the last six weeks, two critical reports have shined a spotlight on Tennessee’s high levels of tobacco use and inadequate prevention efforts. In December, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other public health organizations published a report that compared funding for tobacco cessation and prevention in each state, and Tennessee ranked a dismal 45th nationwide. …
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The Case for Keeping America’s AIDS Relief Plan (New York Times)
Feb 9NEW YORK TIMES | Among global public health advocates, there is a growing concern that President Trump may cut back, or even eliminate, programs that have played a critical role in fighting diseases worldwide. While every administration should strongly review our nation’s overseas commitments, and there are undoubtedly programs that we should cut, I hope…
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Telemedicine can improve access to quality, affordable care in Texas (Texas Tribune)
Feb 2TEXAS TRIBUNE | If you become ill and need a doctor tonight at 11, who will you call? What will you do? Texans in Austin, Dallas, or Houston are probably surprised to learn that Texas ranks 47th in the nation in the number of active primary care physicians per capita. Among its 254 counties, 35…
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Less salt in foods means longer lives — Trump’s administration can fix this (The Hill)
Feb 1THE HILL | No state is an island when it comes to our food and its impact — good or bad — on our population’s health. That’s why it’s critically important for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to continue its efforts to reduce sodium in our packaged and restaurant foods. In June, the FDA…
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Healthy Foods Are Good For Business And Deserve The Support Of President-Elect Trump
Jan 17At the start of a new year, we often find ourselves making resolutions to eat healthier and get active (I know I’m one of those people!). But the good news is, America’s interest in healthier foods has become a year-round trend, not just a New Year’s fad. More than 66% of shoppers say they want…
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Supporting Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education
Jan 10Betsy DeVos has been nominated for the next U.S. Secretary of Education, and I believe she is the best person for the position. I’ve known Betsy for many years, and I’ve seen firsthand her passion for education and for our children. Here is the letter I’ve just sent Lamar Alexander, Chairman of the Committee on Health,…
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New Model Can Advance Treatments, Cures For Rare Diseases (Forbes)
Dec 15FORBES | If your child suffered from a rare and incurable disease, what would you do to find a cure? My former colleague and good friend Dr. Chip Chambers faced just such a challenge, and took the bull by the horns. Last month, Dr. Chambers organized a unique medical conference that should serve as a model…
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Groundbreaking 21st Century Cures Act
Dec 7The US Senate just voted 94-5 to pass the 21st Century Cures Act. This is an historic moment for American medical innovation and the millions of patients who will benefit. The Cures Act is groundbreaking. Over the 40 years I have been in medicine, there has never been a more exciting time for medical innovation…
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How NashvilleHealth Is Maximizing Community Population Health (Health Affairs)
Dec 5HEALTH AFFAIRS | How can Main Street, America, move the needle in a city’s population health and wellbeing? It begins with a solid, organizational structure built for the long term. I fondly call my hometown, Nashville, the “Silicon Valley of Health Services.” With 18 publicly traded national health care companies headquartered here with annual global health…
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The time to act is now: Bipartisan action will accelerate cures for Americans (The Hill)
Nov 22THE HILL | With the election over, speculation is rampant on what this means for politics and policy in 2017. We need to take a step back however, and realize there is critical work to be completed by Congress in 2016, to set the stage for a new generation of medical innovation, and demonstrate to the…
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TrumpCare: In The Beginning… (Forbes)
Nov 17FORBES | The immediate question for those whose lives focus around lifting the health of individual Americans is, “What does Donald J. Trump’s presidency mean for health care in America?” At the heart of the answer is uncertainty. Trump is an “unknown unknown” when it comes to deep, thoughtful health policy. He has excelled in many…
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It’s time for the U.S. to lead on combating global malnutrition (The Hill)
Nov 4THE HILL | One single public health crisis accounts for nearly half (45%) of all child deaths under age five. Every 4 seconds, a person dies from this cause – approximately 21,000 every day. And shockingly, nearly one in nine people globally is affected. What is this epidemic that has taken so many lives? That has…
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My Turn: Around the world, Ayotte is a force for good (Concord Monitor)
Nov 2CONCORD MONITOR | Since entering the U.S. Senate in 2011, Sen. Kelly Ayotte has emerged as a leading voice on U.S. national security and foreign policy. Through her service on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Ayotte has established herself as a strong defense hawk, consistently leading efforts to protect national security spending and to call…
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Tennessee Makes Huge Strides
Oct 27In 2013, Tennessee’s progress on math and reading scores was considered a bright spot. Today, our students continue to excel and have made Tennessee the fastest improving state in science since 2009. On behalf of our team at SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education), I applaud our students and teachers for their tireless efforts to…
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The Last Shall Be First: Haitian Women Taking Steps To End Poverty (Forbes)
Oct 20FORBES | How is it possible that the people of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere have to shoulder repeatedly the impact of one natural disaster after another? And what can we do as one of its closest neighbors – and by far the wealthiest country in the hemisphere – to best empower the…
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Want a more resilient world? Give mothers access to the tools they deserve (The Hill)
Oct 18With Michelle Nunn, CARE President and CEO THE HILL | In 2010, the world watched in horror as more than 200,000 people lost their lives to a devastating earthquake in Haiti. And we shuddered again earlier this month when Hurricane Matthew – the most powerful storm to hit Haiti in more than 60 years – killed…
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Our Abysmal Maternal Health Statistics And How To Improve Them (Forbes)
Oct 12FORBES | This past year, the United States received the dubious distinction of being one of only 7 countries in the world, including Somalia and Afghanistan, which have seen an increase in maternal mortality. While countries with far fewer resources such as India and Brazil have made great strides to decrease the number of women who…
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Hurricane Matthew & Haiti A Week Later
Oct 4Hurricane Matthew, a category 4 storm, made landfall at about 7am this morning on the southwestern tip of Haiti. Tracy and I just left Haiti a week ago, where we traveled with Hope Through Healing Hands and CARE to assess progress made since the massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck in January 2010, resulting in…
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The Newborn Illness That Nobody Is Talking About – And It’s Not Zika (Forbes)
Sep 30FORBES | Nothing can prepare a mother for seeing her newborn seize multiple times an hour, refuse to eat or sleep, and shake uncontrollably. That’s what Julia found herself facing after severe chronic back pain from a car accident left her dependent on opioids. Julia had been a college student from a middle class family with…
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Why We Need To Discuss Healthy Timing And Spacing Of Pregnancies (Huffington Post)
Sep 22HUFFINGTON POST | Did you know that the number of women who die each year as a result of pregnancy is on the rise in the United States? A discussion needed in our country and across the globe is the health and wellbeing of women and children. Read more at Huffington Post.
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Back to Haiti
Sep 22NOTES FROM THE ROAD | It’s no secret that I believe investing in global health is absolutely essential, and investments in women and girls—particularly maternal and child health—does nothing less than change a country’s trajectory. Next week, Tracy is joining me as I lead a delegation from all over the United States on a learning…
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Systems Strategies for Better Health Throughout the Life Course: A Vital Direction for Health and Health Care (National Academy of Medicine)
Sep 19NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE | Health and health care outcomes for Americans should be better for most, and much better for some. This should be possible with currently available knowledge and resources. Capturing the potential will require adapting our strategies and approaches to the reality that health is not immutably determined at birth, but shaped by different…
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Thank you and best wishes to Risa Lavizzo-Mourey
Sep 13Earlier today Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, the first woman and the first African American to lead the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), announced that she was stepping down from her role as President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. I have been honored to serve with Risa on the RWJF Board. Her leadership…
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Congress Must Preserve Quitlines and The Tips Program (Forbes)
Sep 12FORBES | Smoking is the number one killer and public health challenge today, causing more deaths each year than automobile accidents, firearm-related injuries, HIV, illegal drug use, and alcohol abuse—combined. As a surgeon, it was the primary cause of the heart and lung disease that I operated on every day for 15 years. In my…
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The right prescription for biomedical innovation (The Hill)
Sep 1THE HILL | If you were a patient suffering from a disease, and you read about a treatment option for your illness, you would probably be eager to learn more. Imagine that the drug, device or other intervention had been on the market for several years, and studies showed that it was especially effective in some…
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The Food We Eat Daily That Leads To Poor Heart Health For Our Children (Forbes)
Aug 27FORBES | Earlier this year, I called attention to the dangers added sugars pose to cardiovascular health and other health outcomes. In the months since, many people have told me how surprised they’ve been to learn about the sugar hidden in their healthy morning yogurt or afternoon energy bar. Frankly, I was too. And this lack of food literacy…
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How Bundled Payments Can Change Healthcare (The Hill)
Aug 19THE HILL | Rising health care costs are a top concern for Americans today, with 64% of voters in a January 2016 Kaiser Health tracking poll, citing a candidate’s position on the cost of health care, health insurance, and prescription drugs as “the single most important factor” or “a very important factor” in their vote…
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FDA Draft Guidance on Real-World Data (Forbes)
Jul 29FORBES | In a document issued this week, the Food & Drug Administration laid out for comment its draft guidance of how real-world evidence could support regulatory decision-making for medical devices. This is a positive step forward for improving the medical product development process. At the Bipartisan Policy Center, Representative Bart Gordon and I have been urging…
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Exploring the Social Determinants of Public Health with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Jul 27NOTES FROM THE ROAD | Scotland—Survival of men and women in Scotland is the worst in Western Europe. So is their general health. Why is that? What is being done? How successful are the new, bold initiatives that were launched in 2010? I am in Glasgow with the board of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)…
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When Regenerative Medicine Changes Everything (Forbes)
Jul 13FORBES | Two weeks ago I led a panel discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) on medical innovation with my good friends Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who chairs the Senate Health,Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee, and former Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN), who previously chaired the House Committee on Science and Technology. We were…
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How Real-World Data Could Change Medicine (US News & World Report)
Jul 11US NEWS & WORLD REPORT | With continuing advances in science and technology, the pace of medical breakthroughs is accelerating. Today, we can treat or even cure conditions that significantly shortened life just a generation ago. The exciting promises of personalized medicine are now becoming reality. Congressman Bart Gordon and I co-chair the Bipartisan Policy Center’s…
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From Volume To Value: Achieving Bold Change In Our Healthcare Payment Systems (Forbes)
Jun 30FORBES | One question I hear repeatedly as I travel the country discussing healthcare is whether the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care can really be done in a way that lowers cost and improves patient care. The answer is: it can. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, successful systems change requires the collaboration and…
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