Progress for tomorrow: Preparing for the next disaster
Participants were Dr. Bill Atkinson, president and CEO of WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, N.C.; Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association; Dr. Tom Inglesby, CEO of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; and Dr. Arthur Kellerman, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University Hospital. Dr. Bernadine Healy, health editor of U.S. News and the former head of the National Institutes of Health and the American Red Cross, moderated the panel.
HEALY: I often joke at U.S. News and say that I'm the physician-in-chief. Of course I'm the only physician at U.S. News, so that makes it very easy to be physician-in-chief.
But I would like to introduce our most distinguished panel. We have Dr. Bill Atkinson, who is the president and CEO of WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh – Raleigh, North Carolina, of course – and that is a private, not-for-profit, multi-hospital system, which is one of the top-ten health care providers in the state of North Carolina. Dr. Atkinson has more than 20 years experience as a hospital president and chief executive officer in both rural and urban settings.
Dr. Georges Benjamin is a well known figure in the public health community. He is the executive director of the American Public Health Association, which is the nation's oldest and largest organization of public health professionals. He came to the post from his position as secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where he played a key role in developing Maryland's bio-terrorism plan, and Dr. Benjamin also has some experience with the anthrax attacks shortly after 9/11.
Dr. Tom Inglesby is the chief operating officer and deputy director of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and he is an associate professor of medicine and public health at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Inglesby is the author of a number of widely cited publications on issues related to medicine and hospital preparedness.
And Dr. Arthur Kellerman, professor and chair of the department of emergency medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine – he also directs the Center for Injury Control for the Rawlins School of Public Health of Emory University and is a member of the board of directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
We've had a provocative morning session and two rather provocative speeches. I was walking out a few minutes ago and I asked someone what they were thinking, and the response was, I'm a little scared and more than I was when I came in this morning.
So with that in mind, I want to ask each one of the panelists as an opening question - from the trenches in a very practical way - and this panel is supposed to focus on what are the things that we can do in a very practical way - we're not talking about abstract - I want to ask each of you, when you go to bed tonight, what is going to be keeping you awake? Let's start with you, Dr. Atkinson.
advertisement
