A one-day event

Friday, October 1, 2010
670 Albany Street, first floor auditorium.
Boston University Medical Campus

8:30 a.m. continental breakfast

9 a.m. to noon, lecture and panel discussion

Free and open to the public?

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Directions to campus

David Cutler, Ph.D, is Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University. Professor Cutler's research is in health and public economics. He served on the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration, advised the Presidential campaign of Bill Bradley, and was senior health care advisor to the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Among other affiliations, Professor Cutler has held positions with the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences. Currently, Professor Cutler is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Professor Cutler is the author of "Your Money Or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America's Health Care System" published by Oxford University Press. Cutler was recently named one of the 30 people who could have a powerful impact on healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine and one of the 50 most influential men aged 45 and younger by Details magazine.

Alice A. Tolbert Coombs, M.D., F.C.C.P., is President of the Massachusetts Medical Society as well as a critical care specialist at South Shore Hospital and an anesthesiologist with South Shore Anesthesia Associates. She has been long active in organized medicine, having served in the last three years as President-Elect, Vice-President, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Massachusetts Medical Society, respectively.

She is a member of the American Medical Association?s Commission to Eliminate Healthcare Disparities. She served formerly as Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine?s Patient Care Assessment Committee, as a member of the Massachusetts State Commission to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Healthcare Disparities, and chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society's Committee on Ethnic Diversity. She was also a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System, established to evaluate the payment system and recommend reforms that will provide incentives for cost-effective and patient-centered care.

William C. Van Faasen is?Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Van Faasen first joined BC/BS of Massachusetts in 1990 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining BC/BS of Massachusetts, Bill was Senior Vice President of Operational Services at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, where he served in various operational, marketing, and health care capacities for more than 20 years.Van Faasen is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Health Care from Health Care For All, the Maimonides Award from the Anti-Defamation League, the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America, the New England Council's New Englander of the Year Award, and recipient of the Distinguished Bostonian from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Kate Walsh is President and CEO of Boston Medical Center, not-for-profit, 639-licensed bed, academic medial center with a community-based focus and primary teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine. BMC has approximately 5,000 employees, 1,300 physicians and an annual operating budget of roughly $1.5 billion. Prior to her appointment at BMC in March 2010, Walsh served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Brigham and Women's Hospital for five years. During her tenure, Brigham and Women's Hospital moved its patient satisfaction scores to the 95th percentile of benchmark institutions nationally, produced strong operating results based on consistent ambulatory and inpatient growth and set a new standard in patient-focused multidisciplinary care with the opening of the Carl J and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center. She also served previously as the chief operating officer for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research.