The ACO Show

Professor George Crooks (@CrooksGeorge) is the CEO of the Digital Health and Care Institute, Scotland’s national innovation center for digital health care. On this week’s episode, he shares his vision of integrating Scotland’s fragmented health data platforms in order to enable health care providers to deliver higher quality care and empower individuals to take charge of their own health data. He describes the challenges he faces as he spearheads a major transformation of the health care system, some of which are unique to the UK, and others which will resonate with those of us living across the pond.

Jim Manzi is co-founder of Foundry.ai, a technology studio that creates artificial intelligence software companies, and is a member of Aledade’s board. He joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) to help us understand how machine learning, scientific methodology and experimentation can be used to help guide corporate business decisions.

Annalyn Whitt (@ALWhitt) is a Practice Transformation Specialist in the Aledade Mississippi ACO. In this week’s episode, she describes the origins and evolution of “Home for the Holidays,” a successful home-grown initiative that helps keep patients with preventable illnesses out of the emergency room and the hospital during the holiday season.

On this episode of the ACO Show, Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) spoke to Melissa Dunford (@MelissaDunford6) and Kristy McGlothin (@kristymcglothin), two of Aledade's Practice Transformation Specialists (PTS). As the Aledade team members who spend the most time out in the field with our partner primary care practices, they each share their unique experiences helping practices understand and adapt to a new model of health care.

Brady Richards started out as a junior engineer working on electronic health records 18 years ago, and today he serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Aledade, leading a growing team of engineers across the U.S. He joined the ACO Show to share what he has learned from a career of developing technologies that help physicians manage multiple aspects of their practices and why he continues to find health care data so engaging.

Dr. Juan Duran and Lucia Zegarra joined the ACO Show this week during Hispanic Heritage Month to share their experiences working in the U.S. health care system. Juan is a third-year resident in pediatric neurology at Columbia University, and Lucia is the Director of Community Health Programs at Community Health and Empowerment through Education and Research (CHEER). They discussed the unique barriers to care that many Hispanic and Latinx individuals face as they navigate our complex health system. They also share some ways physicians can better serve the Hispanic community, and, as Lucia put it, “to not only care for them but to care about them."

Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean), former Governor of Vermont, joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) for this week’s episode. As a physician, governor, presidential candidate, and Chair of the Democratic National Committee, he has been at the forefront of many of the health care debates of the past 30 years. On this episode, he shares his thoughts on universal health care coverage, medical marijuana, and the future of American health care.

Elisabeth Rosenthal (@RosenthalHealth) kicks off Season 2 of The ACO Show with Josh Israel (@DrJIsrael) and Joe Shonkwiler (@JoeShonkwiler). She points out some of the bigger flaws in our health care system and discusses what physicians and private companies can do to bring more humanity back to the practice of medicine. Dr. Rosenthal is the Editor-in-Chief of Kaiser Health News and the author of the bestselling book “An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back.” She covered health care and environmental issues for the New York Times for 22 years. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School and practiced emergency medicine in New York City before transitioning to journalism. Kaiser Health News is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente Health Plans.

Dan Bowles (@DBowles1607), SVP of Growth & Network Operations at Aledade, joins Josh (@DrIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) on the The ACO Show Season 1 Finale to discuss network expansion of Accountable Care Organizations through partnerships with independent physician practices. Aledade sets the framework to help these practices participate in value-based care and sustain independence in the long run.

Two weeks ago, several primary care physicians traveled from their communities to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. They spent an entire day meeting with policymakers and helping them understand what it's like to be in a physician-led ACO. On this episode, Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_MD), CEO of Aledade, and Travis Broome (@Travis_Broome), Vice President of Policy at Aledade, sit down with Dr. Karl Schwabe from Pennsylvania and Dr. Richard Card from Virginia to learn more about their first experience on Capitol Hill and to discuss how policy decisions get made — decisions that affect every healthcare provider in the US.