BALTIMORE, Md. – A panel of national health experts will discuss the economic challenges of health care and the effects on the quality and the practice of medicine on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at a town hall meeting sponsored by the Consortium for Southeastern Hypertension Control (COSEHC), which is headquartered at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The panel discussion, which is part of COSEHC’s 15th annual scientific meeting, will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008, in the Inner Harbor Hyatt Regency Hotel. The discussion will be open to the public. The theme of the annual meeting, which is Sept. 24 – 27, is “Prevention in the 21st Century: The Future Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease.”
Physicians and other health care providers face greater demands on their time, a barrage of regulations, reduced incentives and other challenges to providing quality health care to their patients. The speakers represent critical groups and viewpoints including physicians, government agencies, payers and consumers.
Carlos M. Ferrario, M.D., a co-founder of COSEHC and the Director of the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center at Wake Forest Baptist, will chair the discussion along with Marvin Moser, M.D., professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and editor of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.
The panelists are Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and author of a newly released book, “Healthcare Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America”; Trenor Williams, M.D., senior manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Deloitte Consulting; Lanny Copeland, M.D., chief medical officer of LifePoint Hospitals and former president of the American Academy of Family Practice and Thomas Valuck, M.D., M.H.S.A., J.D., medical officer and senior advisor for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
A $20 fee will be charged for the dinner. To register for the discussion and pay for the meal, call (336) 716-8238 or go to the COSEHC website at www.cosehc.org and click on the town hall icon.
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Media Contact for WFUBMC
Ann Hopkins
Public Relations Manager
ahopkins@wfubmc.edu
336-716-1280
Media Contact for COSEHC
Debra Simmons
Executive Director
dwirth@wfubmc.edu
336-716-1130
The Consortium for Southeastern Hypertension Control (COSEHC), headquartered at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, has created a unique network of physicians and health organizations who work together to reduce the excess prevalence of hypertension and related cardiovascular risk factors in the 13 states in the Southeast. The creation of the network, which consists of 27 regional COSEHC-designated Cardiovascular Centers of ExcellenceTM, consolidates the efforts of over 600 physicians, scientists and health care personnel and serves a population that exceeds 1.5 million people at risk for hypertension-related cardiovascular events. For more information, go to www.cosehc.org.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University Physicians, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.
MEDIA ADVISORY
Prior to the discussion, a press conference will be held at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 24, in the Chesapeake Room on the third floor of the Inner Harbor Hyatt Regency Hotel. Attendees at the press conference will include Carlos M. Ferrario, M.D., the COSEHC vice president of development and the Director of the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center at Wake Forest Baptist, and Michael A. Moore, M.D., the current COSEHC president.