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Former AMA president speaks out about health care in SF Oct 5th
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Monday Oct. 5 @ 1-3 pm at the Commonwealth Club in SF
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Concerned Doctors Speak Out on Health Care
Former AMA president teams with pioneering internal medicine physician
(San Francisco, CA) Physicians from across the political spectrum deal everyday with America’s broken health care system. That’s why, regardless of their political beliefs, doctors are deeply concerned—both for their patients, and because the system often hurts doctors just as much as patients. In view of the crisis we face, two renowned local physicians—Len Saputo, MD, and former American Medical Association (AMA) president Lonnie Bristow, MD—have announced a series of town hall forums to be held in association with Health Medicine Forum. The first event will be held at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club on October 5, 2009 from 1-3pm.
Today’s physicians are mired in frivolous paperwork, and they fight daily battles with HMO and insurance bureaucrats, who second-guess them over tests and procedures. If they are in private practice, they’re forced to waste massive resources dealing with and collecting from multiple insurers. Physicians are also challenged by the pharmaceutical industry’s questionable research, upon which they depend to guide their treatment protocols, and are chagrined at the bombardment of both patients and doctors by Big Pharma advertising. Too often they feel pressured into practicing defensive medicine (i.e., performing expensive test or lab work to avoid law suits). Perhaps worst of all, they struggle with predatory corporations who have taken over health care for the sake of profit, rather than for health and healing.
WHAT: Town Hall Meeting: Concerned Doctors Speak Out on Health Care Reform
WHO: Lonnie Bristow, MD, a former president of the American Medical Association, and Len Saputo, MD, founder of the Health Medicine movement and the Health Medicine Forum and Health Medicine Center in Walnut Creek. Both men have practiced internal medicine for over 40 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
WHEN:
Dr. Bristow and Dr. Saputo will identify the problems we face today in health care, how we got where we are today, and what we can and must do if we’re going to bring back the voice of America to the people, not only in health care, but also in every area of our culture.
Health care problems are as complex as they are abundant but few voices are offering information that focuses on the deeper, underlying cultural issues. These two seasoned physicians will share a vision for progressive change, inspired not only by experience, but by a deep awareness that we must build community in a meaningfully way if we are to heal the broken health care system. Join us for dialogue of hard truths, positive solutions, and fresh perspectives.
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS: Drs. Bristow and Saputo are available for interview. Please contact Eileen Duhné at 415.459.2573 or via email at eduhne@comcast.net to make arrangements.
“When an American sees his doctor, he wants a truthful diagnosis,” said Dr. Len Saputo. “Doctors are also in a position to tell the truth about our dysfunctional health care system. Hopefully we can spur Americans to get active at the grass roots level, or else there’s no chance that meaningful reform will happen.”
TALKING POINTS:
Among issues the two plan to tackle and then open up for questions are:
• The health care industry, especially pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and insurers
• The medical profession: paradigm change in medicine and medical education
• The politics of health care reform, including current legislation
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Lonnie Bristow, M.D. is a former president of the American Medical Association, and also served as vice chair and chair of the AMA’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Bristow has written and lectured extensively on medical science as well as socioeconomic and ethical issues related to medicine. He is a board-certified internist who received his M.D. from New York University College of Medicine. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and was a member of its Quality of Health Care in America committee, which in 1999 and 2001 respectively, authored the widely read reports To Err Is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm. He chaired the Institute of Medicine Committee on Strategies for Increasing the Diversity of the U.S. Health Care Workforce, which issued its report, In the Nation’s Compelling Interest Ensuring Diversity in the Health-Care Workforce.
Len Saputo, M.D. is a 1965 graduate of Duke University Medical School, and is board certified in internal medicine. After his awakening to the deep flaws in conventional medicine, he developed a new paradigm that is now known as integral health medicine. Dr. Saputo founded the Health Medicine Forum in 1994, and went on to found and direct the Health Medicine Center in Walnut Creek, California—one of the first integrative clinics. He is the author of "A Return to Healing – Radical Healthcare Reform and the Future of Medicine."
The Health Medicine Forum, a California non-profit educational foundation that had provided public education for health care practitioners since 1994, provides these Town Hall meetings as a public service. The September 16, 2009 Town Hall meeting is co-sponsored by the Rossmoor Wellness Group and the Community Club of Rossmoor.
For more information call (925) 943-7469
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