Prevention Matters

Dr. Steven H. Woolf attracted national attention in February with a commentary he wrote in JAMA about the value of prevention in the health reform debate. That commentary synthesized a scholarly paper Woolf and others prepared for Partnership for Prevention rebutting critics who have downplayed prevention's place in the debate on the grouds that it did not save money.

Woolf, a professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, has now been invited to address the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Institute 2009 about his work. He will speak at a session on "The Economics of Disease Prevention" that is scheduled for for 11:40 am Thursday, June 4, at the San Diego Convention Center.

"Your recent article in JAMA and your work with the Partnership for Prevention are very important to health care reform and for stakeholders wrestling to balance cost and quality in a struggling economy," Stephanie Lentz Dougherty, AHIP's Senior Director of Professional Education, said in her invitation to Woolf.

AHIP's Institute is the nation's leading conference for the health insurance industry attended by more than 3,000 health care leaders. The educational content at this year's conference has an emphasis on health care reform.