Health-Care Crisis Topic of Debate for Hutton Ethics Lectureship

An outspoken critic of what she calls a U.S. health-care system “in crisis” will deliver the University of Cincinnati’s (UC) 2005 Hutton Lectureship on Ethics.

Marcia Angell, MD, senior lecturer on social medicine  at Harvard Medical School, will talk on "Fixing a Broken Health-Care System,” from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, in the College of Medicine’s Kresge Auditorium, 231 Albert Sabin Way.

Dr. Angell, who argues that higher spending on health care does not necessarily prolong lives, will shed new light on the U.S. health-care system and explore the ethical concerns that play a major role in today’s health-care policy debate.

“More and more people are losing their health insurance,” says Dr. Angell, “and most of the rest of us are underinsured, in the sense that coverage is not comprehensive and we have to pay more out-of-pocket. There is plenty of money already in our system. It’s just being badly spent. In order to increase coverage without increasing costs, we have to change the system altogether.”

Dr. Angell is a nationally recognized authority and writer on health policy, medical ethics and medical evidence. Former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Angell was named one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997 by Time magazine. Her critically acclaimed books include “Science on Trial: The Clash of Medical Evidence and the Law in the Breast Implant Case” and “The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It.” A graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Angell trained in both internal medicine and anatomic pathology and is a board-certified pathologist.

UC’s Hutton Lectureship on Ethics, now in its second year, is an endowed lectureship named in honor of John Hutton, MD, former dean of the UC College of Medicine. Offered once a year, the lecture focuses on current topics facing our society.

The lecture is free and open to the public, but reservations are encouraged. For more information or to register, call (513) 558-0910 or visit

www.medcenter.uc.edu

.