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Dr. Alan Zelicoff is a physician (board certified in Internal Medicine 1992, clinical fellowship in Rheumatology, 1983) and physicist (AB Princeton, 1975), who has had a varied career including clinical practice, teaching, and operations research. In the latter roles, he was Senior Scientist in the Center for National Security and Arms Control at Sandia National Laboratories from 1989–2003. Dr. Zelicoff’s interests include risk and hazard analysis in hospital systems and office-based practice, and in technologies for improving the responsiveness of public health offices and countering biological weapons terrorism.

Dr. Zelicoff has traveled extensively in countries of the former Soviet Union and has led joint research projects in epidemiology of infectious disease, while establishing Internet access at Russian and Kazak biological laboratories. The result of this activity is a real-time clinician-based disease surveillance and reporting system called the Syndrome Reporting Information System (SYRIS) which is now being used by public health officials responsible for monitoring the health of more than 1 million people in Texas and countless agricultural animals and wildlife as well. The State of California legislature has recently passed a bill to test this approach in order to modernize disease surveillance in the state.

In our 9-29-06 interview, Dr. Zelicoff discusses his book MICROBE: Are We Ready for the Next Plague?, published by AMACOM Books. His next book, Doctor, Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There, was scheduled for release in 2007. He is the author of numerous textbook chapters and articles, and is a frequent contributor to Op-Ed pages in the Washington Post and other newspapers.

Technorati Tags: Infectious Diseases

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Dr. Ann Kulze discusses powerful nutritional strategies for maximizing heart health and the most important lifestyle strategies for reducing cancer risk.

Dr. Ann is a nationally recognized expert and motivational speaker in the areas of nutrition, healthy lifestyles, and disease prevention. With her unique background and formal training in both nutrition and medicine, Dr. Kulze has distinguished herself as a one-of-a-kind “real world” nutrition and wellness expert.

Dr. Ann is the author of Dr. Ann’s 10-Step Diet: A Simple Plan for Permanent Weight Loss and Lifelong Vitality, published by Greenleaf Book Group. She has been featured by a number of national media outlets including Oprah and Friends Radio, Time Magazine, and NPR, and is the national spokesperson for Ruby Tuesday’s highly acclaimed SMART EATING Initiative.

Technorati Tags: cancer prevention, heart disease prevention, Lifestyle Medicine, Nutrition, phytochemicals

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Dr. Davis Liu discusses the prevention and treatment of chronic disease using lifestyle medicine. He describes how to get the most out of your doctor visits, as well as important action steps to get healthy and stay healthy.

Also, Dr. Liu discusses U.S. health care policy, addressing issues of access, affordability, and medical outcomes.

Dr. Liu is a board-certified family physician. Since 2005, he has been practicing with the Permanente Medical Group, the nation’s largest with over 6000 physicians. He is the author of Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely: Making Intelligent Choices in America’s Healthcare System.

Dr. Liu’s blog is located here.

Technorati Tags: cancer prevention, health care policy, heart disease prevention, Lifestyle Medicine

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Geri Jenkins

Geri Jenkins, Co-President of the California Nurses Association, discusses Single Payer / Medicare for All – An Economic Stimulus Plan for the Nation. Ms. Jenkins describes how a single-payer system would create 2.8 million jobs and more than $300 billion in new revenues to the U.S. econnomy. A single-payer system would provide health insurance to all Americans, including children as well as families below the poverty line.

The California Nurses Association / National Nurses Organizing Committee is the nation’s largest union of Registered Nurses. CNA was the driving force behind California’s law guaranteeing a safe ratio of nurses to patients on every unit, a law that has saved thousands of lives and helped ease the state’s nursing shortage by drawing RNs back into critical-care settings. CNA is also the nation’s leading proponent of guaranteed healthcare on the single-payer model, which proposes expanding Medicare to cover all Americans.

Technorati Tags: chronic disease, health care, HR676, Medicare, single-payer system, universal health care

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Dr. Michael Ozner

Dr. Michael Ozner, author of The Miami Mediterranean Diet, discusses heart disease prevention. The Mediterranean diet helps reduce inflammation of blood vessels supplying the heart, greatly lowering the risk of a heart attack. Dr. Ozner also discusses his new book, The Great American Heart Hoax, and the juvenile obesity and diabetes epidemics. He makes recommendations on how to get kids to start eating well and engaging in regular exercise.

Dr. Michael Ozner is the Medical Director for the Center for Prevention and Wellness at Baptist Health South Florida, and Medical Director for the Cardiovascular Prevention Institute of South Florida. He is a recipient of the 2008 American Heart Association Humanitarian Award, and has been recognized by the Consumer Council of America as one of the top physicians in America.

Dr. Ozner’s new book is The Great American Heart Hoax: Lifesaving Advice Your Doctor Should Tell You About Heart Disease Prevention (But Probably Never Will). He is the author of the best-selling The Miami Mediterranean Diet: Lose Weight and Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease. Both books were published by BenBella Books in 2008.

Technorati Tags: diabetes, heart disease, juvenile diabetes, Mediterranean diet, obesity, stress management

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Dr. Edward Wagner

Dr. Wagner is a general internist/epidemiologist and Director of the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation at the Center for Health Studies Group Health Cooperative. His research and quality improvement work focus on improving the care of seniors and others with chronic illness.

Since 1998, Dr. Wagner has directed “Improving Chronic Illness Care”, a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He and his MacColl Institute colleagues developed the Chronic Care Model, which now serves as the foundation for improving ambulatory care for many organizations nationally and internationally.

Dr. Wagner has written two books and more than 250 publications. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and serves on the editorial boards of the British Medical Journal and the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. Dr. Wagner is the recipient of the 2007 NCQA Health Quality Award and the 2007 Picker Institute Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Patient-centered Care.

Technorati Tags: cancer treatment, chronic care model, diabetes, health care reform, heart disease

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Dr. Ana Malinow

Dr. Malinow is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and full-time faculty at the Ben Taub General Hospital Pediatric Emergency and Ambulatory Center, located in Houston, TX. Dr. Malinow’s experiences with the underserved in Cleveland and Houston motivated her in 2002 to co-found Health Care for All Texas, and to promote single-payer universal health care through education and policy setting.

Dr. Malinow has been a guest speaker on health care reform in local and national lectures, and has been featured on multiple television and radio programs. She is the author of numerous Op-Ed articles and is past president of Physicians for a National Health Program. Physicians for a National Health Program has more than 15,000 members and chapters across the United States.

Technorati Tags: health care reform, pharmaceutical industry, single-payer system, universal health care

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Dr. Thomas Royer

Dr. Thomas Royer is the President and CEO of CHRISTUS Health systems. Dr. Royer leads day-to-day operations for CHRISTUS Health and lends extensive expertise in developing physician partnerships and community health programs. For three years in a row, he has been named one of the top 50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Healthcare by Modern Physician Magazine. Dr. Royer is a board-certified surgeon. His passion for patients and over 40 years of experience have made him a sought-after speaker, writer, and expert on the health care industry.

Technorati Tags: health care reform, prevention, universal health care, wellness

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Dr. Robert Field

Dr. Robert Field is Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Public Health at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. His expertise extends into healthcare law and regulation, health system planning and development, and health policy analysis. Dr. Field recently published a book, Health Care Regulation in America: Complexity, Confrontation, and Compromise, which gives a comprehensive overview of the healthcare system in the United States.

He has conducted health policy research at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the Center for Law and Health Sciences at Boston University. Dr. Field is a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the adjunct faculty of the Wharton School.

Technorati Tags: health care policy, Medicare, pharmaceuticals, universal health care

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Dr. Pauline Rosenau

Dr. Pauline Rosenau is Professor of Management, Policy, and Community Health at the University of Texas–Houston School of Public Health. She is the author of The Competition Paradigm: America’s Romance with Conflict, Contest, and Commerce, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2003.

Dr. Rosenau edited Public/Private Policy Partnerships, published by MIT University Press in 2000 and Health Reform in the Nineties, published by SAGE Publications in 1994. Her books have received Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic Books Awards in 1992 and 1994. Her peer-reviewed articles have appeared in many prestigious journals, including Social Work in Public Health, Journal of Health Politics, and Medical Care Review.

Technorati Tags: health care reform, U.S. Health Care, universal health care