Baylor Sponsors Health Care Policy Conference In Sweden
by Alan Hunt
An international conference on health care policy will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 28-29, organized by Baylor University, the Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System and the Stockholm School of Economics.
Baylor economics professor Dr. H. Stephen Gardner says the program is targeted at health care professionals, leaders of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and information technology industries, government officials and academic researchers. According to Gardner, "We can find better solutions to our health care problems if we learn to communicate more effectively across boundaries of language, nationality, profession and ideology. This conference is designed to encourage that kind of broad communication and cooperation."
Gardner said other sponsoring institutions include the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Dagens Medicin, Abbott Laboratories and Arthur Andersen.
Program speakers will include U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Lyndon Olson, a Baylor graduate and Waco resident, who will welcome the conference participants and host a reception for conference participants at his Stockholm residence.
Other speakers at the conference will include Dr. Gail Wilensky of Project Hope, a health adviser to the Bush administration; Boone Powell Jr., chairman of Baylor Health Care System; Dr. Terry S. Maness, professor of finance and dean of Baylor's Hankamer School of Business; Dr. James W. Henderson, holder of the Ben H. Williams Professorship in Economics at Baylor; and Dr. Christopher M. Kearney, assistant professor of biology and director of the Baylor Molecular Genetics Laboratory. Gardner, who directs Baylor's McBride Center for International Business, has worked with Dr. Bengt Jonsson, director of the Center for Health Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, to organize the conference.
Topics include "Health Policy in the U.S. and Sweden: Overview," "Public Policy and Health Care Administration," "Financing Health Care: Public and Private Models," "Health Care and Research: How Can They Be Combined?" "Biotech: Industry of the Future and a Force For Change" and "Pharmaceuticals: International Competition and Costs."
For more information about the program, see http://hsb.baylor.edu/health or contact Gardner at (254) 710-6147 or Steve_Gardner@baylor.edu .