Kurt Stange M.D., Ph.D. – Distinguished University Professor and Editor, Annals of Family Medicine at Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

Within the health policy community, it has long been conventional wisdom that health care in the United States relies far too much on specialist and sub-specialist care, in which treatment focuses more on parts of patients than on whole persons. Many studies argue over-specialization is one reason the U.S. system offers poor value for money, compared to other nations’ health care. Related arguments claim care needs to be “integrated” through management by “Accountable Care Organizations” and far more emphasis on “teamwork” both outside and inside hospitals. Some versions expect generalist physicians – from pediatrics, family practice, or internal medicine – to coordinate care. But others expect organizations to coordinate, through routines such as use of electronic health records and shifting work to members of “care teams” or other sites, such as “minute clinics.”

Will the generalist function come into better balance with specialty care? And, if so, will that be through relying on or downgrading generalist physicians? Dr. Stange brings his expertise from practice and as Editor of the Annals of Family Medicine to considering this crucial issue about the future of U.S. medical care.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies 

About Our Guest

Kurt C. Stange, MD, Ph.D. is a family and public health physician, practicing at Neighborhood Family Practice, a federally-qualified community health center in Cleveland, Ohio. For more than two decades he’s been learning and applying complexity science principles to try make sense of a world that just doesn’t seem to fit neatly into little boxes and straight paths. He uses complexity science to guide and interpret mixed qualitative and quantitative research, and more recently he has been working on participatory methods to advance community health and to develop agent-based models of primary health care and patient-centered and population health outcomes.

He serves as editor for the Annals of Family Medicine, and is an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. At The Institute for Integrative Health, he is a Scholar. He is working on Promoting Health Across Boundaries, and is active in practice-based, multimethod, participatory research and development that aims to understand and improve primary health care and community health. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Where We Meet and Parking Possibilities

Guilford House is at 11112 Bellflower Road, a pretty yellow building with a porch in the Mather Quad. The Lounge is on the first floor. The closest parking is the Severance garage or the lot at the Church of the Covenant.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

February 3: Democracy and Demagogues: Lessons from Ancient Greece and Rome. With Rachel Sternberg, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Classics, and Timothy Wutrich, Ph.D., Senior Instructor of Classics.

February 10: Immigration Policy and the Trump Administration. With David Wolfe Leopold J.D., Past President, American Immigration Lawyers Association.

February 17: The New Health Education Campus and the Future of Health Care. With James Young M.D., Executive Dean, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.

February 24: Challenges Facing the U.S. Intelligence Community. With Vincent E. McHale, Ph.D., Marcus A. Hanna Emeritus Professor of Political Science.

March 3: Staffing and Organizing the Trump Presidency. With David B. Cohen, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, University of Akron.

March 10: Nuclear Weapons. With William J. Fickinger, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Physics.

March 17: No program, Spring Break.

March 24: Energy Storage: A Key to Sustainability. With Daniel A. Scherson, Ph.D., Frank Hovorka Professor of Chemistry and Director, Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences.

March 31: Program to be Determined

April 7: Merkel’s Challenge: Managing Trump, Putin, and a Million Syrians. With Mark K. Cassell, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, Kent State University.

April 14: Brazil’s Political Crises. With Juscelino F. Colares, Ph.D., Schott-Van den Eyden Professor of Business Law and Associate Director, Frederick K. Cox International Law Center.

April 21: Program to be Determined

April 28: Putin’s Russia. With Kelly M. McMann, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science and Director, International Studies Program.