Kirk Joslin is President & CEO of Easter Seals Massachusetts. He joined Easter Seals in 1976 as an advocate for children with disabilities. His positions at that organization have included director of an architectural barrier project, camp director, and vice president of marketing and development. He became Easter Seals President & CEO in 1996.  Kirk is active in the disability community and has a long history of volunteer work with youth with and without disabilities. With a staff of more than 170, Easter Seals Massachusetts serves more than 26,000 individuals with disabilities and their families. Easter Seals mission is to provide services that ensure that children and adults with disabilities have equal opportunities to live, learn, work and play. In this interview, Kirk provides tremendous insights into his work helping those with disabilities including special education, assistive technology, and the culture of the deaf among others.

Robert McCray has an impressive array of leadership experiences throughout the health domain. Currently, Mr. McCray serves as the President and CEO of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, Chairman of Alliance Healthcare Foundation, Member of the Boards of Directors of Midmark Corporation and CONNECT, and Special Advisor to TripleTree LLC as well as several other companies. Previously, Mr. McCray served in executive leadership positions in several different health technology companies. Prior to his business career, Mr. McCray practiced healthcare regulatory and transactional law for 15 years and created a focused inter-disciplinary healthcare law firm and consultancy with a national client base. In this interview, Rob discusses how healthcare is "disconnected" and what it will take to change the system including shifting focus from healthcare to health and of course, connected health.

This Topic Update focuses on the health within the United States and the litany of challenges the system faces. In our discussion, we explore multiple topics that are at the forefront of our conversations with our guests, including medical homes, ACOs, ObamaCare and the ACA, obesity, access to care, and legalization of marijuana, health literacy, and many others.

Alex Bryan is currently an MD/MPH student at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, He serves as the Chair of the American Public Health Association - Student Assembly. As a student, his main area of interest is in the shift of healthcare to better address public health issues such as chronic conditions and access limitations. He has been active in research involving hospitalization risk prediction. Alex graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Architecture from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2010. In this interview, Alex discusses his experience as a student and provides insight on critical topics including population health management and other key elements in the world of health.

Geoffrey Hall is an accomplished operational strategist and executive leader with more than 15 years of experience cultivating, improving, and directing operations for various facilities throughout the healthcare industry. He is currently the Administrator for the top 10 nationally ranked Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.Geoffrey completed his undergraduate in Social Work from Auburn University.  He has a Masters in Social Work from East Carolina University and obtained his MBA from Walden University.  He is licensed as a Clinical Social Worker in New York. In this interview, Geoffrey discusses bundled payments, the importance of communication, shifting care models in both the US and China, and rehabilitation care.

Robert Goldberg is Executive Director of The Myositis Association, an organization with headquarters in Alexandria, VA where he has served in that position for the past 11 years. Prior to the Myositis Association, he was Vice President of the National Health Council, an association consisting of 115 diverse national health organizations. His involvement in the health field includes serving as Assistant Director for Patient Registration & Financial Services at Fairfax Hospital in Virginia, a 600+ bed Level I trauma center that is part of the INOVA Health System. Another position in the hospital domain occurred when he was the Director, Admitting/Patient Financial Admissions Office at the George Washington University Medical Center, a 500-bed teaching hospital in Washington, DC. His health policy experience includes serving in the office of U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker where he was director of the Senator’s district office in Pittsburgh for two years and Staff Assistant in the Senator’s Washington office for two more years. His degrees are from Michigan State University and The George Washington University. In this interview, Robert discusses myositis and the challenges to both patients and as an organization, as well as defensive medicine, the shift to managed care, and the importance of prevention.

Josh Stein is a serial entrepreneur. He has worked with multiple early stage consumer and technology companies including Lot18, PlaceVine, and FreshDirect. Most recently, Josh founded and runs AdhereTech, a company focused on improving medication adherence though the use of patented smart pill bottles. AdhereTech has been accepted into both the BluePrint and StartUp health accelerator programs, two of the most prestigious in the country. Josh’s early successes have led to his company winning Boehringer Ingelheim's Healthcare Innovation World Cup, The Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit's Clinician Choice Award, and the NYCEDC's Pilot HealthTech NYC Challenge. AdhereTech has been featured in such prominent outlets as The Wall Street Journal, TIME, The Atlantic, xconomy, FastCompany, MedCity News, and more. Josh was a panel member at this year’s TEDMED, and he was recently named one of the "people to know" by the American Diabetes Association's Diabetes Forecast Magazine. Josh graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, before completing his MBA at Wharton in 2012. In this interview, Josh provides details on starting his company and what he is trying to accomplish with AdhereTech, and the challenges around medication adherence.

Dr. Barbara Brandt is one of the nation’s foremost experts in interprofessional practice and education and a leading force in the creation of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education housed at the University of Minnesota.  The $12 million center was launched in October 2012 through a cooperative agreement by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its goal is to improve health by realigning health professions education and care delivery. She also serves as associate vice president for education and as a professor at the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center. She is the founding board chairperson of the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative. Her doctorate is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She has been recognized as a University of Illinois Distinguished Alumna.In this interview, Dr. Brandt discusses several critical topics in health today including telehealth, integrated health systems, Obamacare and ACA, health and wellness, shifting models of care, and of course interprofessional education.

Michael Fergusson has been a fighter pilot, a terraforming engineer, and a zombie hunter, and that was just this morning! He learned to touch type by hunting sharks, and has traveled the entire Oregon trail without getting scurvy. He also believes that playing is one of the most meaningful and productive things we can do. Michael is the CEO and Founder of Ayogo, a company that has won many awards for their use of social game play to help patients take control of their treatments.

For this work, Michael was Ernst & Young's Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and was recently named one of the 100 most inspiring people in Life Sciences. Michael lives in Vancouver with his wonderful wife and four amazing children and is very happy to be alive at this particular time in history.

In this interview, Michael provides an amazing look at the power of gaming and play in health with specific examples. He also discusses incremental progression, first steps, how to capture opportunities, and his own personal experiences moving into health.

This podcast is about children and how any influences in their lives that are chaotic can have a negative impact on health status. Children are the epitome of powerlessness in any society. Particularly at young ages, their welfare is totally dependent on the care provided on their behalf by adults. Join us for this special topic update as we delve into recent literature on the topic of chaos and child health.