It’s hard to believe, but the Harvard conference is just around the corner! The full conference packet will be posted under “Conferences” above, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at some of the notable speakers those attending the conference will be treated to!

This year’s theme, of course, is “Global Healthcare Systems: A Changing Landscape.” At the conference, guest speakers will introduce us to the health care systems of four countries, allowing us to understand the different challenges faced by each while also gaining insight into the solutions that have been developed.

Nancy Turnbull, Harvard School of Public Health

Nancy Turnbull, a senior lecturer in in health policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management, will be introducing us to the health care system of the United States. She is also Associate Dean for Education Programs at the School of Public Health. Having worked for almost ten years for the Massachusetts Division of Insurance prior to her time at Harvard, she is extremely familiar with the state’s health care system, which drew national attention after it was treated with sweeping reforms in 2006. The reform brought unique implementation problems and innovations, some of which inspired elements of the nation-wide health care reform in 2010.

Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School

Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies, will be speaking about health care in Japan. Prof. Ramseyer spent most of his childhood in Japan, and would later return there as a Fulbright student at the University of Tokyo, where our Tokyo delegation is from. He teaches and studies Japanese law, primarily focusing on economics, making him well-suited to the task of teaching conference attendees about the challenges Japan has faced in successfully implementing its health care system. Japan, of course, has one of the highest (or the highest, depending on the source) life expectancies of any nation in the world.

Join us again tomorrow as we wrap up our speaker preview with two more guests!