2024 MMS Annual Education Program — Navigating Access, Equity, Workforce, and Costs in Primary Care
Friday, May 10, 2024, 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. ET – Virtual Live Webinar
Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH
President, The Commonwealth Fund
Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, is the president of the Commonwealth Fund. One of the nation’s preeminent leaders in health care policy, equity, quality, and community health, Betancourt formerly served as the senior vice president for Equity and Community
Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and as founding director of the Disparities Solutions Center. He has devoted his career to improving the quality and value of health care for diverse populations.
Betancourt has served on committees that have provided advice to all agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, among others. He has also provided guidance to private industry, and at the state and local level, including a term on the Boston Board of Health. His roles
in governance have included serving on the Board of Trinity Health, Neighborhood Health Plan, and the Massachusetts Health and Hospitals Association.
Betancourt is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a board-certified internist, providing primary care to a large Spanish-speaking and minority patient panel. He earned his M.D. from the University of Medicine and Dentistry
of New Jersey and completed an internal medicine residency at New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center. Following his residency, he was a member of one of the first classes in the Commonwealth Fund–Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health
Policy, where he earned an M.P.H. in health policy and management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
An author of nearly 80 peer-reviewed articles, Betancourt has served on several Institute of Medicine committees, including the committee that produced the seminal report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.
Betancourt is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow and recipient of the Sumner M. Redstone Endowed Chair in Health Equity at MGH. In 2022, he was named one of Modern Healthcare's “Top 25 Diversity Leaders,” and in 2023 as one of the “Top
50 Clinical Healthcare Executives in the United States.” Also in 2023, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH
Executive Director, Ariadne Labs
Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Primary Care Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH is the executive director of Ariadne Labs, a health systems innovation center at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy at both Harvard
Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He leads Ariadne Labs’ efforts to design, test, and spread scalable systems-level solutions to make health systems more safe, equitable, and integrated, improving the lives of over
132 million patients in 2023. He has also served as a senior policy advisor at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation for the past 12 years, designing the largest tests of combined Medicare primary care payment and clinical practice transformation
work in the US. He was a core founder and vice chair of the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative, an 8-year partnership with WHO, World Bank, Gates Foundation, and others to strengthen primary care globally. He is a practicing primary care physician,
and serves on the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Health Security with multiple members of Congress, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Standing Committee on Primary Care. He is the 2023 recipient of the Barbara Starfield
Award for excellence in advancing primary care and person-centered care in the US.
John Z. Ayanian, MD, MPP
Alice Hamilton Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy
Director, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan
John Z. Ayanian, MD, MPP is the Alice Hamilton Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy, Professor of Health Management and Policy, Professor of Public Policy, and a practicing general internist at the University of Michigan.
He has served since 2012 as the inaugural Director of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation which includes 700 faculty members from 15
schools and colleges at the University. His research focuses on access to care, quality of care and health equity. Since 2014, he has led a multi-disciplinary team conducting the federally authorized evaluation of the Healthy Michigan Plan,
which has expanded Medicaid to one million adults in Michigan. He previously served as an Associate Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and currently serves as founding Editor in Chief of JAMA Health Forum.
Dr. Ayanian is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, and Alpha Omega Alpha; and a Master of the American College of Physicians. He has received the John
Eisenberg National Award for Career Achievement in Research from the Society of General Internal Medicine and the Distinguished Investigator Award from AcademyHealth. He earned his AB degree in history and political science from Duke University, MD
from Harvard Medical School, and MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School. He completed residency and fellowship training in primary care internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a post-doctoral fellowship in health services research at the
Harvard School of Public Health.
Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, MACP
CEO, Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS)
Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, MACP is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), a coalition of more than 50 specialty societies representing more than 800,000 physicians. As the national organization of specialty societies,
CMSS advances the expertise and collective voice of medical specialty societies in support of physicians and the patients they serve. Representing every specialty, from primary care to surgery, CMSS addresses critical issues across specialties through
shared learning and innovation, convening, collaboration, and collective action.
Dr. Burstin formerly served as Chief Scientific Officer of The National Quality Forum (NQF). Prior to joining NQF, she was the Director of the Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ). Prior to joining AHRQ, Dr. Burstin was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and served as Director of Quality Measurement at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is the author of more than 100 articles and book chapters on quality,
safety, equity, and measurement. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Burstin currently serves on the board of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. A graduate of the State University of New York at Upstate College of Medicine
and the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Burstin completed her residency training in primary care internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and fellowship in General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at Brigham and Women's Hospital
and Harvard Medical School. She is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Rushika Fernandopulle, AB, MD, MPP
Co-Founder and CEO, Iora Health
Rushika Fernandopulle is a practicing physician who was the co-founder and CEO of Iora Health, an early innovator in Primary Care redesign. Iora was acquired by One Medical, and then the combined company was acquired by Amazon, and Rushika is now on a
career break to figure out his next chapter. Prior to this, Rushika was the first Executive Director of the Harvard Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement and Managing Director of the Clinical Initiatives Center at the Advisory Board
Company. He is a member of the Albert Schweitzer, Ashoka, Aspen, and Salzburg Global Fellowships, and is co-author or editor of several publications including Health Care Policy, a textbook for physicians and medical students, and Uninsured in America:
Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity. He serves on the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital, on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, and on the board of Families USA. He earned his AB, MD, and MPP (Masters in Public Policy) from
Harvard University, and completed his clinical training at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts General Hospital.
