The 28th Annual Dorsey Hughes Symposium 

Reaching for Reform: Transforming Health Care by Improving Coverage, Coordinating Care and Encouraging Healthy Living

When: July 24-26, 2008
Where: Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort and Spa • Beaver Creek, Colorado

The 2008 Dorsey Hughes Symposium was held at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek.

This year's Dorsey Hughes Symposium featured national experts sharing their expertise and insight about key strategies to reform our health care system: expanded coverage, integrated or coordinated care, and incentives for healthy living.

Overview and Speakers:

Thursday: Expanding Health Coverage

• Len Nichols, PhD, Director, Health Policy Program, New America Foundation
• Uwe E. Reinhardt, PhD, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, Princeton University
• Jon Oberlander, PhD, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina School of Public Health
• Paul Grundy, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACOEM, Director, IBM Global Well-Being Services

Luncheon Presentation: Celinda Lake, President, Lake Research Partners and Elizabeth Harrington, Partner, Public Opinion Strategies provided a bipartisan look at the political landscape surrounding health care and the 2008 presidential election.

Breakout Sessions:
Lessons From California: What Can Colorado Learn?
Experts from California share reflections with Colorado reform experts on what worked and what didn't as the state came close to implementing sweeping health care reform in 2007.

Two Approaches to Reform: Single-Payer vs. a Market-Based Model
Strong pros and cons can be made by advocates for these two major points of view for health care reform in Colorado.

A Key to Achieving Quality and Efficiency: Health Information Exchange
At all levels of health care, information technology is accepted as an integral ingredient to success in improving health outcomes. Is Colorado keeping up or lagging behind?

Friday: Encouraging Healthy Living

• Debbie Chang, Sr. Vice President of the Nemours Foundation
• Kenneth Cooper, MD, MPH, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Cooper Aerobics Center
• Reginald L. Washington, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children
• Joseph Thompson, MD, Surgeon General State of Arkansas

Luncheon Presentation: T.R. Reid, author, documentary producer and Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, discussed different approaches to preventive care and creating the right incentive structure to promote good health.

Home Sweet Medical Home:  Getting More Value from Our Health Care System
What progress is being made and what barriers still exist to achieving coordinated, integrated care and ultimately better health care outcomes?

Fighting Obesity in Our Schools: What Policies Will Work?
Both Arkansas and Texas have implemented policies to address childhood obesity in the school setting. Can they work in Colorado?

What's Driving Colorado's Health Care Costs?
Nearly everyone agrees Colorado's health care costs are too high, but there is less agreement on what is driving those cost increases and what can be done to lower them.

Saturday: Coordinating Health Care

• Susan Dentzer, Editor-in-Chief, Health Affairs
• Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Denis A. Cortese, MD, President and CEO, Mayo Clinic
• Katherine Baicker, PhD, Professor of Health Economics, Harvard School of Public Health

For additional information, please contact DorseyHughes@ColoradoHealth.org.

View information about the 2007 Dorsey Hughes Symposium.

If you are interested in learning more about the The Colorado Health Foundation fellows program, please contact Lorez Meinhold.