Author of ‘Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer’ to speak at Quinnipiac University’s North Haven Campus March 18

[box]Shannon Brownlee, author of the groundbreaking book “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.”[/box]

Shannon Brownlee, author of the groundbreaking book “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer,” will be the keynote speaker at the Universal Health Care Foundation forum, “Reform to Transform,” from 6-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, in the Center for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences on Quinnipiac University’s North Haven Campus, 370 Bassett Road.

“We talk about ‘reforming’ health care, as if all that’s called for are a few tweaks to the system,” Brownlee said. “Reform is what a kid gets when he’s caught stealing. Reform is what the tax code needs. How about a reformation in health care? We need a radically transformed system and we need to begin tomorrow. Maybe the time is right for a grand strategy for health. Not health care, health, because we are going to go broke if we keep pouring money into the health care sector and neglecting the social determinants.”

Brownlee, who also is senior vice president of the Lown Institute, is the co-founder of the Right Care Alliance, a group of clinicians, patients and community leaders seeking to change the health care system through social activism. She serves on the board of FamiliesUSA, the advisory board of the American Academy of Family Practice Robert Graham Center and the Institute of Medicine’s Evidence Communication Innovation Collaborative. Brownlee has been a national leader in highlighting the scope and consequences of overuse in health care. An internationally known writer and essayist, her work has appeared in “The Atlantic,” “New York Times Magazine,” “The New Republic,” “Time Magazine” and “The Sunday Times of London.”

“We’re excited to be able to bring Shannon Brownlee to Connecticut to keynote our second Reform to Transform forum,” said Frances G. Padilla, who will moderate the event. “She is a national leader in highlighting the need for transformative change in our health care system and we look forward to her provocative ideas stimulating a discussion about how we spark that change here in Connecticut.”

The event also will feature a respondent panel that includes:

  • Pamela Delerme, a certified nurse-midwife who manages the Obstetrics Triage Unit at Yale-New Haven Hospital;
  • Dr. Stephen Smith, a founding member of the National Physicians Alliance, who served as the principal investigator of an NPA project to promote good stewardship in primary care that has since grown into the Choosing Wisely campaign. Smith, a family physician at the Community Health Center in New London, is a professor emeritus of family medicine and former associate dean of medical education at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; and
  • Victoria Veltri, the state healthcare advocate and vice chair of Access Health CT.

Tickets are $20 for individuals and $50 for patrons. Those interested in attending can purchase tickets at www.universalhealthct.org.

Posted by Chris

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