COVID-19 Webinar Series
TPG-IHA hosted a series of webinars geared towards better understanding the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has impacted healthcare around the world. Using our contacts from previous live, in-person events in host countries, and faculty from future educational summits to be held when global travel normalizes, we’ve put together several hours of content. You can enjoy the video replays of each webinar, and some additional audio recordings where available that cover some of the audience questions that were asked but not answered during the event. We also have a list of all faculty participants below the videos.
Part I: “What Is The New Normal?”
December 2, 2020
The Academy hosted a panel of speakers representing viewpoints from Japan, Sweden, and the United States. You can watch the replay of the session below. Our speakers addressed a number of questions in this hour-long webinar, like:
How did your country respond to COVID-19 and why?
What have we learned from this pandemic?
What is the new “normal” for us all?
How are you dealing with a vaccine?
What is the plan for 2021 and beyond?
Part II: “Where Are We One Year Later?”
March 31, 2021
Part II of the series included speakers from Canada, Israel, Japan, and the United States. Our faculty took a look back at the previous year and assess how their respective countries handled the pandemic and where things sit currently, regarding both healthcare and the public.
We heard comments surrounding the adjustments made as entire populations were forced to work from home, or became unemployed. We discussed lockdowns, mask mandates, other government intervention and how the public responded to each of these attempts at controlling the coronavirus. And we became the conversation addressing vaccines, their availability, administering them to the public, and much more.
You can view the video replay of the 90-minute session below, and there are two audio-only recordings you can stream (about 10 minutes each) that discuss audience questions that we could not address during the event due to time restraints. Faculty information for this session is also available below.
Dr. Bruce Rosen joined Jeff Carlisle for a quick follow-up conversation to further discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce and other social implications of the pandemic, as well as touching on the COVID-19 vaccine and the possibility of boosters in the future.
He also shared a study regarding the effects of working from home throughout the pandemic, which is available here.
Dr. Sayaka Hikida joined Jeff Carlisle for a quick follow-up conversation regarding the efficacy of mask-wearing and surface sanitation, and they touched briefly on how to address the possibility of another pandemic.
Part III: “Traveling with TPG-IHA in 2021 & Beyond”
June 30, 2021
TPG International Health Academy produced its third, Virtual Educational Summit on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. This 60-minute program focused on the Academy’s Educational Summits planned for 2021 and 2022, and the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel.
Learn about the Academy’s plans to travel to Estonia, Japan, and Italy, what international travel looks like in today’s climate, and hear from experts in each of these countries to better understand why we want to study their healthcare systems.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES AND COPMANY PROFILES
Perry Cohen (Parts I & II & III)
Chief Executive Officer
The Pharmacy Group
Carmel, Indiana USA
Perry is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Pharmacy Group (TPG). Perry has more than 40 years of experience with managed care, and during that time has worked for local, regional, and national health plans. He helped create the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry in the early 1990s. Over the years he has developed relationships with hundreds of decision-makers in the United States healthcare system and has assisted more than 200 companies in selling their products and services to payors. Additionally, Perry practiced in community, hospital, and long-term care pharmacy in California and oversaw the operations of 50 community pharmacies in nine states. Perry is a co‐founder, past president, and fellow of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), a member of the Drug Topics Editorial Advisory Board, Managed Healthcare Executive Editorial Advisory Board, and the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy National Advisory Board. He completed an administrative clerkship at the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Maryland. His clinical training was performed at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Enrico Benedetti, MD, FACS (Part III)
Warren H. Cole Chair in Surgery, Professor and Head,Medical Director, Abdominal Organ Transplant Program, Department of Surgery
UI Health
Chicago, Illinois USA
Dr. Enrico Benedetti is a transplant surgeon at UI Health. Dr. Benedetti is a prominent leader in organ transplantation and in the use of robotic-assisted techniques in transplantation. He has to his credit many successful surgical firsts, including the first robotic donor nephrectomy for a living-donor kidney transplant, the first combined living-donor liver and bowel transplant from an adult to an infant, the first robotic combined kidney and pancreas procurement for a living-donor transplant, and the largest series of living-donor intestinal transplants in the world. Dr. Benedetti is Professor and Head of Surgery and the Warren H. Cole Chair in Surgery.
Nadav Davidovitch, MD, MPH, PhD (Part II)
Director, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Jerusalem, Israel
Nadav Davidovitch, MD, MPH, PhD, is an epidemiologist and public health physician. He is a full professor and director of the School of Public Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. His research interests include health policy,public health, vaccination policy, one health/eco-health, comparative health care systems, public health ethics and global health.
Davidovitch serves on several international and national committees, among them: Governing Board, European Public Health Association; Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region COVID-19 Task Force; and the Israel national COVID-19 advisory committee.
Don Hall, MPH (Parts I & II & III)
Principal
DeltaSigma, LLC
Highlands Ranch, Colorado USA
Don Hall, M.P.H., has experience in all aspects of non-profit and for-profit healthcare management, including public health, hospital systems, and health plans. His extensive background includes executive level positions with Hospital Corporation of America, Lincoln National Corporation, EQUICOR and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. Before becoming a founding partner of DeltaSigma, LLC in 2006, Don served for eight years as President and CEO of Colorado Access, a non-profit provider-sponsored health plan focusing on Medicaid, SCHIP, Medicare Advantage special needs populations, and corrections care. Don has been a member of the Academy of International Health Studies since 2002 and has studied health care systems in Argentina, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland. In addition, Don serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Managed Healthcare Executive magazine. He received his M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. DeltaSigma, LLC is a national healthcare consulting practice that focuses on supporting innovative approaches to business strategies within Commercial, Medicaid, Medicare and MLTSS health plans.
Sayaka Hikida, MD (Parts I & II & III)
Infectious Disease Emergency Specialist (IDES) Trainee
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Infectious Diseases Control Division
Tokyo, Japan
Sayaka Hikida is an Infectious Disease Emergency Specialist (IDES) trainee as well as a Fellow of the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine (FJSIM). After nine-years engagement to the rural medicine and a 2018 Japanese fellowship program in the US Naval hospital Yokosuka, she has been participating in the Infectious Disease Emergency Specialist (IDES) training program, offered by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). After she worked at Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters of MHLW, she has deployed to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta as a guest researcher/Japanese liaison medical officer Apr 2020-Mar 2021.
Elizabeth Keller (Part II)
Vice President, Business Development & Stakeholder Relations
OntarioMD
Toronto, Canada
Elizabeth Keller is a leading executive, strategist and integrator in Canadian digital health and a recognized health expert internationally. She was recently named as one of the Top 10 Women in Digital Health in Canada.
She has worked with some of the largest private sector consulting firms in the world (IBM and PwC), and in the public sector for the last 10 years. As VP, Business Development & Stakeholder Relations for OntarioMD, Elizabeth leads new business, partnerships, branding, marketing and communications, reports directly to the CEO and works closely senior leadership and key stakeholders across Canada.
Elizabeth is now an advisor to the Board for CHIEF (Canada’s Health Informatics Executive Forum) and also the Head of Delegation for Canada for ISO TC 215 (Digital Health Standards) for the Standards Council of Canada.
Lauren Laino (Part III)
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Amplified Event Strategy
Charleston, South Carolina USA
Lauren is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amplified Event Strategy LLC, a global marketing firm focused on consulting and event management for high profile B2B conferences in cities around the world – having produced large scale events in New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Berlin to name a few spots! Over her 20-year career as a lawyer and event program lead for multi-million-dollar conferences, Lauren has organized over 300 corporate meetings – leading the charge on getting her clients to think as smart disruptors within their sectors when it comes to original content, event experiences, and partnerships.
Amplified Event Strategy’s portfolio includes event production, content/program development and marketing consulting services in various industries including cryptocurrency/blockchain, pharmaceutical/healthcare, financial services/fintech, information/cyber security, and travel sector events (both in-person and virtual conferences).
Our firm’s strategic and operational experience has allowed us to successfully partner with in-house teams of leading event sponsors including CoinDesk Consensus, Georgetown University/DC Fintech Week, Web3 Foundation, Chainlink, Celo Labs, Orchid, Grayscale Investments, Seatrade Cruise Global (an Informa event), The San Francisco Marathon and IANS Research, among many others.
Prior to establishing Amplified Event Strategy, Lauren was the Head of Events for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a Wall Street trade association, where she produced educational conferences and executive education. Prior to her event career, she practiced law specializing in corporate and contract law. Her legal experience brings a unique analytical perspective to her creative marketing initiatives. Lauren received a B.S. in Politics from New York University and a J.D. from the Rutgers School of Law.
Michal Laron (Part II)
Senior Research Scholar, Health Team Leader,
Systems Group, and Researcher, Pathfinder Team
Myers-JDC-Brookdale
Jerusalem, Israel
Senior Research Scholar, Health Team Leader, Systems Group, and Researcher, Pathfinder Team, the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute (MJB), Israel’s leading center for applied social research. Michal Laron has worked at MJB since 2012. As a researcher in the Aging Team (Family Group), her main research areas were coping with dementia, loneliness in old age, and integrated care. As a researcher in the Pathfinder Team, Michal addressed the issue of affordable housing. Since assuming office as Health Team Leader in 2020, Michal has led studies on health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, remote health care services, and health and digital literacy. Michal holds a BA in Sociology and Communications an MA in Anthropology and Sociology, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as a PhD in Sociology from Tel Aviv University.
Terje Peetso, MD (Part III)
Member of the Management Board
North Estonia Medical Centre
Tallinn, Estonia
Dr. Terje Peetso is a member of the management board in the North Estonia Medical Centre in Tallinn. Among ohter tasks she is responsible for the coordination of research and innovation activities in the hospital, quality management and cooperation with other hospitals and clinical partners in Estonia and abroad.
Dr. Peetso worked from 2003 – 2018 in the European Commission on different public health matters. Before joining the North Estonia Medical Centre, Peetso was the Head of Sector on eHealth and Ageing Policy in the European Commission`s DG CONNECT In 2014 she was the EU Fellow in the University of Southern California, USA, where her research focus was on the obstacles which hinder the introduction eHealth in healthcare systems.
Dr Peetso holds a diploma in medicine from the University of Tartu, Estonia.
Bruce Rosen, MD (Part II)
Director of Systems Research Group
Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute
Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Bruce Rosen is the director of the Systems Research Group at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale (MJB) Institute in Jerusalem. In that capacity he is a member of MJB’s senior management team, with responsibility for MJB’s research teams in the areas of health, employment, and the Arab population, as well as the Institute’s economic service. Dr. Rosen is also the director of MJB’s Smokler Center for Health Policy Research. His recent research foci have included Israel’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout, the Israeli mental health reform, efforts to monitor and improve the quality of care, health information exchanges, and the cross-national flow of health policy innovations. An important component of his work involves promoting linkages between research and health policy development. Dr. Rosen is also co-editor of the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, which seeks to promote intensive intellectual interactions between scholars from Israel and their counterparts from around the world. Rosen holds a B.A. in economics from Harvard College and a doctorate in health policy from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dave Schmidt (Part III)
Former President
TPG International Health Academy
Manhattan Beach, California USA
Dave Schmidt is a former President of TPG International Health Academy (TPG-IHA). During his 25-year career in senior management, Schmidt has held executive positions in operations, business development, sales, and marketing in the healthcare and manufacturing industries. Dave has a strong background in finance and has been instrumental in developing successful customer-focused programs and providing strategic leadership that resulted in significant, profitable growth for other organizations. In 2011, after leading SCAN™ Health Plan for eight years, Dave established a consultancy practice that focuses on strategic planning and implementation in the healthcare industry. He also serves as an Executive in Residence at LEK Consulting assisting their clients in the healthcare space. In addition, he is a board member and chair of the Audit Committee at Apollo Medical Management (AMEH on NADAQ). Dave previously served on the board of Beacon Health Care Systems, a start-up company that has developed compliance software for Medicare Advantage Plans and other payors.
While serving as Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of SCAN, he was responsible to a board of directors and provided leadership to an executive team as well as nearly 900 employees. SCAN Health Plan, a not-for-profit healthcare organization based in Long Beach, California, is the largest Social HMO and 10th largest Medicare Advantage plan in the country. He also served on the California Association of Health Plans Board of Directors for six years. In addition, he led the creation of the SCAN Foundation, the largest foundation in the United States focused on long-term care and aging.
Prior to joining SCAN, Schmidt served as CEO of Medicheck, a firm that provided internet-based financial services management to healthcare organizations. He led the company through development of its software platform and sale to Passport Health Communications. He served on Passport’s Board of Directors after the sale.
Additionally, Schmidt’s experience includes working for two major health plans as Senior Vice President of Sales and Customer Services and Regional Vice President for FHP Healthcare.
Prior to a career in managed care, Schmidt held senior management positions at Avery-Dennison, Memorex, and Rockwell International. He holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
John Vazquez, MD (Part III)
Physician Consultant
TPG International Health Academy
Chicago, Illinois USA
Dr. John Vazquez is a Physician Consultant with TPG International Health Academy (TPG-IHA). TPG-IHA has hosted educational programs for senior healthcare executives for 25+ years, holding week-long Educational Summits in over 30 countries across the globe. The Academy is powered by three pillars: education, networking, and cultural immersion.
Dr. Vazquez is a Physician Executive with extensive CMO and Healthcare Management experience who has spent his career serving the underserved communities in some of the most industry-challenged healthcare delivery organizations. HIs skills in teamwork, strategy, quality, safety, business development, turnaround, and a commitment to education have led to Dr. Vazquez’s long-term success.
Dr. Vazquez spent the last 17 years at Sinai Health System, Chicago’s largest private healthcare system serving vulnerable communities, and with over $1 billion of revenues. Dr. Vazquez led the physician group through numerous projects and endeavors. He was the physician lead on philanthropy for the system, EMR and telemedicine implementations as well as numerous physician practice acquisitions and a large hospital merger. During his work as a physician leader for Sinai Chicago, the system saw a year-over-year improvement in the bottom line from a loss of $42 million to a profit of $10.7 million and an improved EBIDA from a negative $14.8 million to a positive $33.8 million. Dr. Vazquez assisted to increase philanthropic giving from a baseline of $2.3 million annually to $10.9 million.
Dr. Vazquez is currently Professor of Anesthesia at University of Illinois in Chicago. Besides leadership roles as Chief Medical Officer and Chair of Anesthesia, he has been Medical Director of the anesthesia service line and operating rooms at three hospitals, residency site coordinator for University of Illinois and Program Director for the Midwest School of Nurse Anesthesia. Dr. Vazquez is active in state and national physician organizations and governance bodies. He has built strong teams and strategic relationships with many companies building partners both in and out of healthcare.
Dr. Vazquez has served on several boards. As an entrepreneur at heart, he has helped shepherd companies to growth and acquisition. He is driven by the opportunity to bring innovation while improving health and wellness. On a global scale, Dr. Vazquez has been a US delegate for years with TPG International Health Academy visiting 4 countries to date with the mission to share strategies to improve global healthcare.
Dr. Vazquez holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from University of the Illinois in Chicago, Illinois and Is Board Certified in Anesthesia.
Zayed Yasin, MD, MBA (Part I)
Chief Executive Officer
YA Health Advisors
Stockholm, Sweden
Zayed Yasin, MD/MBA is a physician executive specializing in using innovative technology to improve healthcare access and performance. While at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, he helped design, build and implement a comprehensive information platform as a basis for a system of Data Driven Strategic Planning for Region Halland in Sweden. He has published on innovation in the Swedish Healthcare system with Professor Michael Porter at Harvard Business School, and been involved with the Swedish health system since 2009. He currently works to bring new health innovations to market and develop better uses of health data in both the US in Sweden. Zayed lives with his wife and 3 daughters in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is the founder and CEO of YA Health Solutions, a healthcare technology development and advisory firm, and a Clinical Instructor in Emergency Medicine at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
Dr. John Vazquez is a Physician Consultant with TPG International Health Academy (TPG-IHA). TPG-IHA has hosted educational programs for senior healthcare executives for 25+ years, holding week-long Educational Summits in over 30 countries across the globe. The Academy is powered by three pillars: education, networking, and cultural immersion.
Michelle is a Senior Consultant for The Pharmacy Group (TPG). TPG provides consulting services to healthcare service, information technology, and pharmaceutical companies to grow revenue and improve the financial performance of their products and services.
Sue is a senior consultant for The Pharmacy Group (TPG). TPG provides consulting services to healthcare service, information technology and pharmaceutical companies to grow revenue and improve the financial performance of their products and services.
Gayle is a Senior Consultant with TPG Data Services (TPG-DS). TPG-DS and our team of senior healthcare and clinical consultants are transforming the way providers and payors monitor healthcare information to control costs and enhance efficiencies.
Nancy is a Senior Vice President with The Pharmacy Group, responsible for all financial aspects of the TPG Family of Companies, as well as operational matters. She joined The Pharmacy Group in March 2012, in addition to performing the overall financial management she evaluates project profitability and pricing, manages cash flow, analyzes financial performance, and makes financial recommendations. Additionally, she handles HR functions, and frequently is involved in client contracting.
Jeff joined The Pharmacy Group (TPG) in August 2008 to support its administrative functions. Over the years he has taken on additional responsibilities including marketing initiatives, client communications, and general web support. As a vice president Jeff is primarily responsible for attendee recruitment for all TPG activities, from the planning and strategy of recruitment to the execution and oversight of those initiatives.
Mr. Brook has over 30 years in health care industry management and consulting. He has managed medical and health economic educational programs, convention activities, and promotional product support as both an employee and a consultant. He has worked on market access programs with the National Payor Roundtable since the organization formed in 2005, (as the National Managed Care Roundtable). He managed the daily operation of a pharmacy benefit manager’s formulary programs and was instrumental in the development and implementation of over 20 custom formularies. Mr. Brook has worked with state and federal agencies in refining the diagnosis-related-group system, in developing the resource-utilization-group system—part of the U.S. Federal Long-Term-Care Minimum Data Set, and in developing a mental health classification and reimbursement system. Mr. Brook has taken an active role in the developing and reporting the results of the National Payor Roundtable advisor survey. He reviews for several journals including the American Journal of Managed Care and Current Medical Research and Opinion. He has a variety of therapeutic experience with marketed and developmental products and holds several degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, including an M.S. in operations research and statistics, an M.B.A. in health systems finance, and a B.S. in management information systems.
Dr. Sax is co-founder and President of The Pharmacy Group LLC in Glastonbury, Connecticut where he provides marketing services to healthcare service providers; pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device clients; and information technology and companies to grow revenue and improve the financial performance of their products and services.
Rich Balest has served as a health industry consultant utilizing over 25 years of experience in data mining, data modeling, data warehousing, and information delivery. Rich has comprehensive experience analyzing detailed claims and eligibility from CMS, insurance companies, and managed care organizations including prescription benefit managers (PBM), and account and medical record detailed patient data from hospital patient accounting systems, clinical ancillary systems, and professional and institutional billing systems.
Sarah is a Vice President of Business Development for The Pharmacy Group (TPG). Her primary responsibility is coordinating business growth across the various LLCs in the TPG Family of Companies. She joined The Pharmacy Group in February 2015— initially to augment the organization’s business development and administrative activities. In the years since she has worked on marketing initiatives, client communications, general web support, and program development.
Marjorie Pestel Zimmerman, MS, BS Pharm, is a registered pharmacist with diverse experience in the healthcare industry. During her practice in a large tertiary care center, she held numerous positions, including decentralized clinical pharmacist and Assistant Director of Operations within the pharmacy department. As a consultant for a psychiatric hospital, she performed medical staff drug usage evaluations and led patient medication groups.
In August 2015, Leon Edelsack became the President of TPG Healthcare Consulting (TPG-HC) and also serves as the president of TPG-HC’s sister company, TPG Data Services (TPG-DS), a position he has held since 2009.