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The US should be a leader in the global fight against Covid-19 | Opinion (CNN)
May 8CNN | Americans are staring down an unprecedented crisis. We’ve already lost more than 71,000 of our fellow citizens. Millions of families live in fear and uncertainty every second. And large swaths of our workforce are losing their jobs each week. Together, we face a common, invisible enemy: the novel coronavirus, Covid-19. As two former US Senate majority leaders, we…
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Privatized contact tracing will help America safely reopen amid coronavirus pandemic | Opinion (The Tennessean)
Apr 23THE TENNESSEAN | South Korea proved it could contain COVID-19 without a lockdown through aggressive contact tracing. That is what the U.S. must do to be successful too. After implementing social distancing through a lockdown, but before deploying a vaccine, the single best tool we have to contain the COVID-19 pandemic is contact tracing. Countries…
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What We Have Lost In Social Connections, We Can Gain In Nature (Forbes)
Apr 22FORBES | What We Have Lost In Social Connections, We Can Gain In Nature The coronavirus pandemic has stolen much from us: the company of our friends, the variety of our daily activity, the color of our social occasions, and—for too many—the stability of our livelihoods. It thrusts us into physical distancing, imposed isolation, and loneliness….
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3 Ways Policymakers Could Help Our Nation’s Doctors And Nurses (TIME)
Apr 15TIME | As a former heart-transplant surgeon and former U.S. Senator, I understand the frustrations many on the front lines of this pandemic are experiencing. Here are three things those doctors and nurses—dedicated but tired, anxious and feeling betrayed by government—wish policymakers would do: First, strengthen supply chains of personal protective equipment (PPE) and diagnostic tests. We are in…
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Notes from the Road: Global South Summit 2013
Nov 26NASHVILLE | At the Global South Summit last week, I moderated a panel on one of my favorite topics: transforming healthcare into health. There is much discussion about how the current model of healthcare is “broken.” But the fact is, the system is producing exactly what it was designed to produce. The problem is that…
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Notes from the Road: 2013 Health Care Investors Conference
Nov 21NASHVILLE | Last Wednesday, (Nov 13) I had the privilege of joining Bass, Berry and Sims and Deloitte at the 2013 Health Care Investors Conference. I sat down with Brad Smith, CEO of Aspire Health; Andrew Lasher, CMO of Aspire Health; and Anna Gene O’Neal, CEO of Alive Hospice, to discuss some of challenges and…
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Health care system should focus on easing patients’ lives
Jul 21Over the course of the past century, advances in public health and medical care have led to improvements in life expectancy that our ancestors would not have been able to imagine. Average life expectancy for Americans born in 2013 is approaching 80 years. While we now live longer and typically spend most of these years in good health, many live with advanced and complicated illnesses. Health problems that once caused death are now controllable as chronic conditions. With these chronic conditions comes the risk of chronic illness and chronic symptoms.
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Nashville Health Care Council Fellows
Jul 16“What we witnessed is bipartisan dialogue, exposure to world-known individuals, new methods of learning, strategies and tactics I have put to use, and a consistent and engaging forum for dialogue. I consider this class one of the single most important investments I have made in myself.” -Laura Beth Brown, Vice President, Vanderbilt Health Services, Vanderbilt…
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We Must Continue Our Legacy of Saving Lives
Mar 7(Roll Call, March 7, 2013) Now is no time to shy away from our health investments By Bill Frist A decade ago, as I was beginning my time as Senate majority leader, bipartisan consensus in Washington helped launch a new era of progress in global health just when it was sorely needed. Twenty years had…
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How do you want to die?
Sep 11(The Week, Sept 11, 2012) It’s a fraught question, but unless we move beyond caricatured “death panels” and deal with grim realities thoughtfully and responsibly, we’re all in trouble. How do you envision death with dignity? I like to think of being at home in the comforting and supportive environment of family and friends. But…
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Personalized Medicine
Sep 10(The Hill, July 10, 2012) It’s time to think of health in a disruptive way. Policy must set the enabling landscape, but the truly dramatic and the transformative will come from the exploding but still very young field of personalized medicine. All healthcare is local, and all health is personal. Personalized medicine is healthcare targeted…
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What my doctor thinks of Obamacare?
Aug 29(The Week, August 29, 2012) Lawmakers in D.C. may truly be committed to improving America’s health-care system. But according to actual physicians, our leaders are going about it all wrong Want real health reform that is in the interest of you and your family? Don’t make the same mistake that Washington did. In formulating ObamaCare,…
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5 reasons deficit hawks should lay off global health initiatives
Apr 24(The Week, April 24, 2012) By Bill Frist, M.D. America’s national debt is ballooning at a worryingly rapid pace. But some programs ought to be spared the chopping block. Government spending is about to get chopped — no matter who wins the next presidential election. President Obama and his GOP challenger Mitt Romney have both…
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