What a week for Health Policy at Jefferson!!

First, thanks to all those persons who have been viewing our new videos and for your comments. Now I would like to review several key events on our campus here at Jefferson last week. The Chief Health Policy Advisor for the Clinton Campaign was our featured lunch speaker last Monday and Andrea Palm did a great job outlining the candidate's position and taking questions from the nearly standing room only crowd of medical students. Remember, the big PA Primary is tomorrow!! On Wednesday of last week we featured a campus wide AOA Forum on the Future of Primary Care with representatives from our faculty as well as experts from Independence Blue Cross and Take Care Health. We had a spirited discussion and concluded that reform of the payment system is critical if primary care is to survive. Finally, we capped off the week with a special visit from Dr Richard Carmona, the 17th Surgeon General of the United States who discussed the need for our nation to focus on better coordination of persons with chronic illness. He was adamant that our single biggest contribution toward better health for the nation would be to get our patients to stop smoking. Dr. Carmona also reviewed briefly our plans to launch the Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health and he applauded our efforts and voiced a sincere desire to get personally involved. What a week for health policy on our campus!! DAVID B. NASH