The Right to Health Care Series: Former Surgeon General Koop to Deliver First Lecture in New Dartmouth Medical School Series, "The Right to Healthcare," on April 13 at 7 p.m.

Hanover, NH --- Dr. C. Everett Koop will deliver the first lecture on Thursday, April 13, in a new Dartmouth Medical School initiative, "The Right to Healthcare: Has the Time Come?" His talk begins at 7 p.m. in Cook Auditorium on the Dartmouth campus.

Dartmouth Medical School Dean John Baldwin created this lecture series, which is sponsored by IBM, to raise the level of national discourse on healthcare and provide a better framework to the electorate this presidential season. The speakers are distinguished individuals – from doctors to healthcare economists to political leaders – with informed but different perspectives on healthcare.

In addition to Dr. Koop, participants in "The Right to Healthcare" include the Nobel Peace Prize-winning cardiologist Dr. Bernard Lown, healthcare expert Regina Herzlinger of Harvard Business School, and President-elect of the American Medical Association, Dr. Randolph Smoak.

The point of departure for this initiative is a paradox: While most Americans might say they possess the right to healthcare, the fact is they donÕt. Participants in the series will explore whether there should be a right to healthcare for all Americans. Many questions may be considered. On what grounds can the right to healthcare be created? What is the best way to guarantee universal access? Who will take financial responsibility for the provision of adequate medical care?

Healthcare in the United States is one of the most politically, socially and emotionally charged topics of our national conversation. It is a central issue of the presidential race. Every day, it seems, another story covers some aspect of the increasingly contentious healthcare debate, according to Baldwin.

"The real question is not whether the nation can afford to grant the right to healthcare, but whether we can afford not to. The time has come to address the issue. Our healthcare system is in a state of chaos. Medical costs continue to skyrocket, yet a quarter of Americans remain uninsured. The status quo is not an option. Access to quality care for all citizens is a goal whose realization must be accelerated."

Dr. Bernard Lown will speak at 4 p.m. on May 3, Regina Herzlinger at 4 p.m. on May 17, and Dr. Randolph Smoak at 5 p.m. on May 26.

• Dr. C. Everett Koop – As Surgeon General from 1981 to 1989, Dr. Koop advised the American public on a variety of health-related matters, including smoking, diet and nutrition, and the AIDS crisis. He is the recipient of 35 honorary doctorates and is currently the Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Professor at Dartmouth Medical School. He founded the Koop Institute at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire.
  
• Regina Herzlinger – Herzlinger is a renowned healthcare expert. She is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Her 1997 book Market Driven Health Care is a bestseller and her healthcare research has been profiled in industry journals and such business publications as Business Week, The Economist and Fortune. The excellence of her work has been recognized three times by the American College of Healthcare Executives. She was also named one of the top 10 thinkers in healthcare in the September 1999 issue of Managed Healthcare.
  
• Dr. Bernard Lown – Dr. Lown is a world-renowned cardiologist. He is Professor of Cardiology Emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health, Senior Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and the Chairman and Founder of the Lown Cardiovascular Research Center in Brookline, Massachusetts. Dr. Lown co-founded the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a peace-promoting organization that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. He recently authored The Lost Art of Healing, a critically acclaimed appeal for compassion in medicine.
  
• Randolph D. Smoak, Jr., MD – Dr. Smoak is the president-elect of the American Medical Association (AMA). Over the past few months, he has been traveling across the country to deliver an important message: "Healthcare issues must be a central component of any policy agenda." These travels are part of an initiative called "National House Call," which aims to make healthcare reform a keystone of policy for every presidential candidate. Prior to being named AMA president-elect in 1999, he had served as the organization’s board chair and secretary-treasurer, and he has been a member of the its executive committee since 1994. He has also held virtually every leadership position in the South Carolina Medical Association.

Hali Wickner

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