Plenary Speakers
Plenary Sessions
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Thurgood Marshall Ballroom
AdvaMed 2008 will host daily public policy breakfast and lunch plenary discussions featuring well-known industry and/or policy leaders. Discussions will focus on relevant public policy issues affecting medical technology innovation. Open to Full Access registrants, as well as, the appropriate One-Day Access registrants.
Plenary Breakfast Series
7:30 am - 8:45 am
Monday Breakfast - Charlie Cook
Respected Authority on U.S. Elections and Political Trends Publisher, The Cook Political Report Political Analyst, the National Journal Group
Widely regarded as one of the nation's keenest minds on U.S. elections and political trends, Charlie Cook is the publisher of The Cook Political Report and a political analyst for the National Journal Group, where he writes weekly for National Journal magazine and CongressDailyAM. He also writes a regular column for the Washington Quarterly, published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and is a political analyst for NBC News.
Tuesday Breakfast - Andrew Dillon
CBE, Chief Executive National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Andrew Dillon is Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence.
He graduated from the University of Manchester in 1975 and has held a number of senior management positions in the UK National Health Service, including General Manager of the Royal Free Hospital and Chief Executive of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, both academic centres in London. Andrew has been a member of the Council of the NHS Trust Federation and has contributed to national policy on the allocation of research and development funding in the NHS. He has been member of the UK Department of Health's International Panel and its Health Industries Task Force.
He helped establish NICE as its founding chief executive in 1999.
Wednesday Breakfast - Newt Gingrich
Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Newt Gingrich is well-known as the architect of the "Contract with America" that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years. After he was elected Speaker, he disrupted the status quo by moving power out of Washington and back to the American people. Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, passed the first balanced budget in a generation, and passed the first tax cut in 16 years. In addition, the Congress restored funding to strengthen our defense and intelligence capabilities, an action later lauded by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.
Newt described his vision of a 21st Century System of Health and Healthcare that is centered on the individual, prevention focused, knowledge intense, and innovation-rich in his book, Saving Lives & Saving Money. Here he makes the case for a market-mediated system that improves choice while driving down costs.
Plenary Lunch Series
12:30 pm - 1:45 pm
Monday Lunch - G. Steven Burrill
Chief Executive Officer, Burrill & Company
G. Steven Burrill has been involved in the growth and prosperity of the life science and MedTech industry for over 40 years. Mr. Burrill is one of the industry's most avid and sustained developers. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Pharmasset and is a member of eight other Boards of Directors. Prior to founding Burrill & Company in 1994, he spent 28 years with Ernst & Young, directing and coordinating the firm's services to clients in the life sciences, MedTech, high technology and manufacturing industries worldwide.
Mr. Burrill is a founder and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the National Medals of Science and Technology. He also serves as an advisor on the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation, Purdue Discovery Park External Advisory Committee as well as the editorial board of the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology.
Tuesday Lunch (Part 1, Moderator) - Marilyn Werber Serafini
Reporter for National Journal
Marilyn Werber Serafini has been the health care and welfare reporter for National Journal since 1995, and has won several awards for articles on these subjects. The most recent was from the Association of Health Care Journalists for an article scrutinizing the recent surge in specialty hospitals across the country. She has written extensively about Medicare policy, the uninsured, bioterrorism, and pandemic preparedness. A former reporter with CongressDaily, Serafini has also written about trade, tax, and budget policy. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland and of American University, where she received an M.A. in Journalism and Public Affairs.
Tuesday Lunch (Part 1) - David Blumenthal, MD, MPP
Director, Institute for Health Policy; Advisor to Senator Barack Obama
David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. is Director, Institute for Health Policy and Physician at The Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.
From 1987-1991 he was Senior Vice President at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, a 720-bed Harvard teaching hospital. From 1981 to 1987 he was Executive Director of the Center for Health Policy and Management and Lecturer on Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. During the late 1970s, Dr. Blumenthal was a professional staff member on Senator Edward Kennedy's Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research.
He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and serves on several editorial boards, including the American Journal of Medicine and Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. He is also a National Correspondent for The New England Journal of Medicine. He serves on advisory committees to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Social Insurance, the Open Society Institute and other foundations.
Dr. Blumenthal was the founding chairman of AcademyHealth (formerly the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy), the national organization of health services researchers. He is also Director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement. He is recipient of the Distinguished Investigator Award from AcademyHealth, and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Rush University. He is a Senior Advisor to the Obama campaign in health policy. He has served as a trustee of the University of Chicago Health System and currently serves as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn Medicine).
His research interests include the dissemination of health information technology, quality management in health care, the determinants of physician behavior, access to health services, and the extent and consequences of academic-industrial relationships in the health sciences.
Tuesday Lunch (Part 1) - Gail Wilensky
Economist, Former Administrator HCFA/CMS, Advisor to Senator John McCain
Gail Wilensky is an economist, and a Senior Fellow at Project HOPE (an international health education foundation). Wilensky is a Commissioner on the WHO's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, co-chaired the recently completed Department of Defense task force on the Future of Military Health Care, is Vice Chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission and serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America and the National Opinion Research Center.
From 1990 to 1992, she was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration. She also served as Deputy Assistant to President (GHW) Bush for Policy Development, advising him on health and welfare issues from 1992 to 1993. From 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and from 1995 to 1997, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission. From 2001 to 2003, she co-chaired the President's Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation's Veterans. In 2007, she served as a Commissioner on the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors.
Dr. Wilensky testifies frequently before Congressional committees and speaks before professional, business and consumer groups. She earned her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan.
Tuesday Lunch (Part 2) - Eric A. Heiden, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon and American Sports Icon
Dr. Eric Heiden is a true American sports Icon. At the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games, Eric won Gold medals in all five speed skating events from the 500m –10,000 meter, setting four Olympic records and one world record. He was the first person in Olympic history to win five Gold medals in individual events in the same games. In 1983 Eric was inducted in to the Olympic Hall of Fame.
Following his skating career, Dr. Heiden turned to cycling. In 1985 he won the U.S. Cycling Championship and competed with the 7-Eleven pro cycling team in the 1986 Tour de France (the first American team to enter the race).
In 1991, following in the steps of his father, orthopedic surgeon, Jack Heiden, Eric earned his medical degree from Stanford University. From 1991- 2006, Dr. Heiden practiced medicine at UC Davis in California. In addition to performing surgery at UC Davis, he and his good friend and colleague, Dr. Max Testa developed a sports medicine program, which included training and research around cycling and other sports.
In July of 2006, Eric and his wife Dr. Karen Heiden, also an orthopedic surgeon, specializing in hands, and their two children, relocated to Utah. Both Eric and Karen have thriving medical practices at TOSH - The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Murray, where they perform surgery and Eric serves as the Sports Medicine Director. Dr. Heiden continues his involvement with U.S. Speed Skating, serving as team physician, and with USA Cycling as team physician and Director of Sports Medicine.
Wednesday Lunch – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
United States Senator (D-NY), Former First Lady of the United States, and Author
Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the United States Senate by the people of New York on November 7, 2000, after years of public service on behalf of children and families. She is the first First Lady of the United States elected to public office and the first woman elected independently statewide in New York State. A strong advocate for New York, Senator Clinton works with communities throughout the state to strengthen the economy and expand opportunity. The Senator supports a return to fiscal responsibility because she knows that wise national economic policies are essential to protect America's future.
She serves on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; the Special Committee on Aging; and she is the first New Yorker ever to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
In the Senate, she has continued her work for children and families by leading efforts to ensure the safety of prescription drugs for children, with legislation now included in the Pediatric Research Equity Act; working to strengthen the Children's Health Insurance Program, which increased coverage for children in low income working families; and helping schools address environmental hazards.
Senator Clinton continues to work to increase access to health care. She authored legislation that has been enacted to improve recruitment and retention of nurses, to improve quality and lower the cost of prescription drugs, and to protect our food supply from bioterrorism. She sponsored legislation to increase America's commitment against Global AIDS, and is now leading the fight for expanded use of information technology in the health care system to decrease administrative costs and reduce medical errors.
Senator Clinton is the author of best selling books including her autobiography, Living History; It Takes A Village: and Other Lessons Children Teach Us; Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets; and An Invitation to the White House as well as numerous articles.
Full advantage will be taken of the conference's Washington venue to secure prominent and relevant speakers for Tuesday and Wednesday's lunch plenary sessions.
AdvaMed 2007 keynote luncheon speakers included the 41st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush, CMS Acting-Administrator Kerry Weems, U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, and the Hall of Fame and NCAA championship UConn men's basketball coach, Jim Calhoun.