Making the Connections
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Previous Events
An annual event, Making the Connections is made possible by an unrestricted educational grant from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
Making the Connections 2017: Opioid Use
The ground-breaking 2016 Surgeon General’s Report “Facing Addiction” states that a public health approach to the opioid epidemic requires integrating substance use disorder services into the mainstream health care system, disrupting the largely separate system previously in place. Decades of research do not support the misconceptions that alcohol and drug problems are a character flaw or "willful rejection of social norms” but are a disease of the brain, that can be successfully treated with a comprehensive medical approach, just like other chronic conditions.
In Pennsylvania, and across the country, there is a significant dichotomy between science and practice. Policymakers now promote evidence-based treatments, especially medications, in addition to behavioral therapies, yet policies in place prevent access to treatment for millions of individuals. How are these contradictions being addressed? Do state policies work with the federal policies? How do local policies work within the larger policies? Please join us as federal, state and city policymakers give us their perspectives on tackling this widespread concern.
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Moderator Special Guest Panelists: Tom Farley, MD, MPH |
Making the Connections 2016: Biosimilars
Biosimilars are biological products approved by the FDA that are "highly similar" to an FDA-approved product with respect to safety and effectiveness. While agents such as these have been available in Europe for more than a decade, the introduction of them into the US market place is not without controversy.
Biosimilar manufacturers are faced with regulations that impede product marketing and payers, while anticipating the benefits of access to lower cost medications to patients, are concerned about interchangeability, safety and acceptance by the medical community and the patients they serve. This program will examine how each of these stakeholders views the introduction of biosimilars in the U.S. and how they anticipate the market place to evolve in the next few years.
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Panelists: Moderator: |
Making the Connections 2015: Obesity
A variety of factors play a role in obesity, including the interplay of the environment and genetics. Compounding these natural variations are widespread marketing practices confusingly focused on both healthy and non-healthy foods and a multitude of weight loss strategies in spite of an increasing sedentary lifestyle. The consequences of these marketing practices, food and lifestyle choices, and natural factors is an increase in the number of Americans, adults and children alike, who are overweight and/or obese. This presents major challenges to those in the healthcare industry, not only from a public and policy perspective, but from a business perspective. This program will examine just some of the challenges facing practitioners, policy makers, and businesses regarding the epidemic of obesity.
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| Panelists: Michael F. Jacobson, PhD Executive Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest David L. Katz, MD, MPH Karin Richards, MS, CWP, CWPC, NSCA, ACSM ACE Chair, Department of Kinesiology Samson College of Health Science, University of the Sciences |
Making the Connections 2014: Social Media in Healthcare
Social media use is growing exponentially and nearly 75 percent of all adults seek health information online. Pharmaceutical companies and public health organizations are well poised to provide this information to patients. But is the information obtained accurate, reliable, and fair balanced? The recently issued FDA draft guidance is intended to help, but there still exists confusion and concern. Today's panel of national experts will address how social media is used to communicate and improve the health of populations of patients, what the regulations are regarding communicating with patients, and what patients can expect from the public health and the pharmaceutical industries.
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Panelists: Moderator: |
Making the Connections 2013: Comparative Effectiveness Research
Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) is just a single step in a series of advances in medicine seeking to better understand "value" at the patient level. After more than three decades of double digit growth in healthcare spending, CER is the next logical step, and likely not the last. The aging population, increase in covered lives, and most notably a vast array of advances in healthcare technology, have inevitably lead us to the point of needing a far more practical and "real world" understanding of how different treatment choices can impact patient level outcomes.
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Panelists: Michael W. Painter, JD, MD Brian Sweet, RPh, MBA Steven Udvarhelyi, MD Moderator: |
Making the Connections 2012: Personalized Medicine
Advances in fields such as genetics and genomics have created new opportunities for personalized medicine applications in clinical practice and healthcare delivery. This conference, featuring a panel of renowned speakers, provides an engaging update of the field of personalized medicine and explores the field from the perspectives of business, economics, public health, and health policy.
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Panelists: Michael F. Christman, PhD Amalia M. Issa, PhD, MPH Moderator: |