Program

This private gathering of a select group of leaders will focus on the growing notion of "food as medicine"--the impact of food on health outcomes, promising developments in technological innovation, and policy ideas that may prevent disease through nutrition.

With healthcare costs continuing to rise, it is imperative to focus on food and nutrition as tools to not only promote greater sustainability and better well-being, but to eliminate poor health while preventing costly health problems such obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease across the United States. This is the time to focus on actionable solutions. The Food Leaders Roundtable is a part of the Milken Institute's ongoing "Feeding Change" program to achieve a healthier food system.

The world population aged 60 and over will rise from 900 million to 2.1 billion by midcentury. While questions about medical costs and retirement savings stir concern, increasing longevity and health have spurred unprecedented economic growth. Older individuals seek to remain engaged and relevant as long as possible. Businesses are now recognizing that this segment of society represents a dynamic global resource--with their consumer strength, their product and service needs, and the wisdom and experience that they bring to the workforce. The Business Council aims to change policies, practices, hearts, and minds to ensure that companies and societies benefit from the global demographic shift.

Our fall Patients Count Leadership Council meeting will bring together members of the FasterCures Patients Count Leadership Council for our bi-annual, in-person gathering to discuss pressing issues in patient engagement.

This session will open with a conversation with Robert Redfield, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, followed by a panel discussion.

Partnerships can be the key to advancing global health innovation by providing increased expertise through multi-stakeholder collaboration, greater opportunities for scale through expanded reach, and further mechanisms to bridge looming financial gaps. In context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which target "healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages", this session will illuminate how mobilizing alternative sources of capital, employing innovative financial models, and engaging in new cross-sector partnerships can most effectively catalyze progress throughout the global health ecosystem.

Part 1

• Welcome Remarks Rich Ditizio, President and Chief Operating Officer, Milken Institute
• Guest Robert Redfield, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Moderator Rick Berke, Executive Editor, STAT

Part 2

• Moderator Thomas Bollyky, Director of the Global Health Program; Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development, Council on Foreign Relations
• Speaker Deborah Birx, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State
• Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, UN Foundation
• Bruce Gellin, President, Global Immunization, Sabin Vaccine Institute
• Speaker Susan Sweeney, Head of U.S. Commercial, Bristol-Myers Squibb

The U.S. Surgeon General has said that better partnerships lead to better national health. As a result, a number of agencies, organizations, and companies are re-examining how they approach combatting the opioid crisis in their local communities. Collaborative approaches that both stress the importance of prevention and engage all aspects of a community to address addiction as a disease instead of a moral failing are beginning to become more prevalent. This panel will discuss the opioid epidemic as a national public health emergency, while also highlighting how local-level collaborative action – with New Jersey as a case study– is the key to helping our communities emerge from this crisis.

"Curative" is not a word that we can use very often in medicine, especially when talking about diseases such as cancer and rare genetic disorders. However, the first curative therapies are already here, and the wave is coming. The Food and Drug Administration approved three gene- and cell-based therapies last year. In contrast to traditional therapeutics that alleviate symptoms alone, gene- and cell-based therapies hold the promise of treating the underlying cause of a disorder for long periods of time, perhaps even curing or preventing disease. Excitement around recent approvals of the first gene therapies comes with a desire to speed development of similar therapeutics in the pipeline, as well as concern over upfront costs that could run hundreds of thousands of dollars for each patient. How do we ensure that patients get access for durable therapies while companies are rewarded for their investment? Some are turning to financial innovation, hoping to reallocate payment timing, risk, and incentives among stakeholders in the supply chain to promote access to durable therapies for those who need it. This panel will explore several approaches to financial innovation in the quest to find a cure for the cost of durable therapies.

We are in the midst of a food revolution fueled by shifting consumer preferences, emerging nutrition science, geopolitical shifts and health crises. A healthier food system would result in better well-being, lower healthcare costs, greater sustainability, and reduced disparities in the United States. With health-care-related costs continuing to rise, it is imperative to focus on food and nutrition as tools to eliminate poor health and to prevent obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other costly health problems. How do we raise awareness of food as an ingredient in our healthcare system and make best use of new developments in food technology and innovation? What are actionable solutions and policy ideas to prevent disease through nutrition and make our country healthier overall?

This interactive workshop that will bring together a cross-sector group of stakeholders across various stages of the biomedical ecosystem. Help us define and map out metrics for successful innovation throughout stages of the ecosystem. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and think creatively about redefining and measuring successful biomedical innovation.

This session will open with a conversation with Ben Carson, Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, followed by a panel discussion.

Health is not only determined by biology, genetics, and individual behaviors, but is also largely impacted by social and physical environments, including resource availability and the communities in which individuals reside. This panel will discuss holistic contributors to health status and explore solutions to improving health outcomes, ranging from market-based initiative and aligned incentives to community health workers and ensuring access to affordable quality health-care.

Part 1

• Guest Ben Carson, Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Moderator Ed Greissing, Executive Director, Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Public Health, Milken Institute

Part 2

• Moderator Anand Parekh, Chief Medical Advisor, Bipartisan Policy Center
• Speaker Karen DeSalvo, Professor, University of Texas; Former Acting Assistant Secretary of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Speaker Esther Dyson, Executive Founder, Wellville
• Speaker Sergio Matos, Executive Director, Community Health Worker Network of NYC

Traditional models of medical product research and development and health-care delivery are being disrupted, as incentives for research and care shift and technology opens up new opportunities. Hospitals and universities are shaking up conventional approaches to their roles. New investment models are emerging for financing early-stage R&D all the way to product approval and access. What is behind these transformations, and what will the health-care and research landscape look like for patients and investors over the next few years?

People who reach age 65 today in the U.S. can be expected to live, on average, another 20 years. Yet the Medicare program was designed to treat acute conditions, not to help older adults manage their chronic conditions and prevent illness in the future. How might laws like the recently enacted CHRONIC Care Act transform Medicare to better address the primary health of older adults today? How are healthcare systems and health plans changing incentives to promote prevention and wellness as people live longer lives?

This interactive roundtable will bring together forward-thinking foundation leaders in a discussion around the next generation of venture philanthropy. Attendees will look at novel financial models in which philanthropies are engaging to move promising ideas to the point of private investment, the challenges and opportunities they present, and the capabilities necessary for foundations to engage in such partnerships.

This session will open with remarks by Alex Azar, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, followed by a panel discussion.

Increasingly, organizations who are able to turn data into insights and subsequent action hold the keys to discovering cures, supporting healthy aging, and solving society’s largest public health challenges. This session will explore the growing importance of data as an engine of disruption in health-care.  From aging in place to the detection of public health threats and the future of cures, data is the currency that is fueling new possibilities.

Part 1

• Opening Remarks Ed Greissing, Executive Director, Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Public Health, Milken Institute
• Guest Alex Azar, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Part 2

• Moderator Meg Tirrell, Biotech and Pharma Reporter, CNBC
• Speaker Susannah Fox, Former Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Speaker Iya Khalil, Co-Founder, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President, GNS Healthcare
• Speaker Deborah Kilpatrick, CEO, Evidation Health
• Speaker Don Rucker, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Co-Hosted by FasterCures and the Prostate Cancer Foundation

Innovators are realizing tremendous value from using telehealth in patient care and clinical trials. Leading health care organizations are increasing access to care while demonstrating improved outcomes and decreased cost. At the same time, medical research organizations are sensing the emerging promise to increase patient centricity and accelerate development while reducing R&D cost and enhancing diversity in clinical trial populations. Can lessons-learned in patient care translate to clinical trials? If the value is high, why has the uptake been slow? Are there best practices from government organizations that can help speed up implementation in the private sector? 

We have seen an incredible amount of technological innovation over the past decade. How are these advances being used to help us tackle our biggest health challenges globally? How has technology provided unexpected alternatives, greater insight and improved health outcomes for patients? How does technology help provide more options and pave the way for access to high quality health interventions no matter where an individual lives? What are the biggest opportunities that lie ahead concerning digital health and do any barriers stand in the way that need to be addressed?

The human brain is one of the most powerful - yet least understood - machines on the planet. Despite the social, ethical, and economic imperatives to cure and prevent diseases of the aging brain - from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's - we know much less than what is needed to truly address these illnesses. This session will examine what the leading scientists, scholars and policy experts know about how lifestyle issues such as nutrition, stress, and physical activity may impact long-term brain health, as well as promising breakthroughs in the development of new drug therapies to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease.

Only one in five adults meet recommended physical activity guidelines, with the average adult clocking in at nearly 12 hours a day sitting at their desks, on their couches, or in their cars. Studies show that people who are physically active tend to live longer and have lower risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression, and some cancers.

The average adult also spends close to 11 hours looking at a screen per day and checks their phone every 10 minutes. Our modern-day reliance on these digital devices and their habit-forming qualities has led to decreased face-to-face social connection and negative impacts on mental health and wellness.

This session will offer Summit participants the opportunity to learn simple exercises that everyone can incorporate into their daily office routine, and to make time for mindfulness through a guided meditation to reduce anxiety and stress in the workplace and our everyday lives.

Opportunity Zones, created in December as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, aim to use tax incentives to encourage investment in low- to moderate-income communities. The potential to leverage private sector dollars to address public health issues offers a unique opportunity to address key societal issues through commercially viable means. In particular, unhealthy eating habits have contributed to the obesity epidemic in the United States: about one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese and approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2--19 years are obese.1 Even for people at a "healthy weight", a poor diet is associated with major health risks that can cause illness and even death (e.g. Chronic Heart Disease, Diabetes, Cancer). By making smart food choices, you can help protect yourself from these health problems. However, for some communities, eating unhealthy foods is not a choice but rather the only option. Studies have shown that Low-income neighborhoods offered greater access to food sources that promote unhealthy eating. The distribution of fast-food outlets and convenience stores differed by the racial/ethnic characteristics of the neighborhood. This Private Session will explore how local/state governments can work with investors to promote capital for businesses that provide improved access to healthy foods.

Over the past decade, business courses, magazines, and media outlets have overflowed with advice and research on how companies can "create a culture of innovation." Recommendations such as embrace failure, eliminate hierarchy, be transparent, and promote diversity in thought, have provided a guidebook for innovation in business, but do we know the components necessary to create a global culture of biomedical innovation? Who are the players best suited to push the boundaries of innovation around the world? How do we know we are achieving a culture of innovation? What metrics can help us measure success?

Join Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures, and majority owner of the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers, as he discusses his philanthropic journey, from curing rare disease to revitalizing his hometown of Detroit.

As the average age in cities across the world trends older, cities are adopting multiple strategies to address population aging as well as other health, environmental, transportation and growth issues. By utilizing new technologies and strategies, cities can more effectively navigate an urban tapestry that is becoming more diverse, economically stratified, and technologically advanced as ever before. This session will highlight breakthrough technologies as well as innovative business and service models that smart cities can adopt to help aging populations live healthier, more productive, and purposeful lives.

The Future Health Leaders program organizes students pursuing careers in public health to build a global grassroots advocacy army that promotes prevention and wellness in order to improve individual and community health. In the 2018 pilot year, the program consists of twelve students from four participating schools of public health - (1) Brown University School of Public Health, (2) West Virginia School of Public Health, (3) George Washington University School of Public Health, and (4) University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. In this private session the Future Health Leaders joined by their school Deans and Administrators will present their recommendations for the two Community Impact Project assignments focused on applied prevention strategies. This year's projects are in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Born This Way Foundation and will discuss solutions and interventions at the national and local levels.

What we eat not only impacts our health, but also has a great effect on the health of our planet as our current food system serves a leading driver of global climate and environmental change. Could a rapid shift to a plant-based diet worldwide both feed and save the planet? In this panel, cross-sector leaders will share research and solutions to improve human and environmental health.

The socioeconomic toll of neurodegenerative disease grows more alarming every year: the 2017 costs of dementia care were greater than 250 billion dollars. Over the next 30 years, that number is expected to increase four-fold to reach 1.1 trillion dollars annually. As we continue to understand the magnitude of the crisis, there are places where federal, commercial, and philanthropic funders can make a real difference.

The Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy has partnered with several leading foundations and individual philanthropists to map out how philanthropic capital can advance our understanding of how the brain functions in order to build a treatment pipeline for an array of neurodegenerative diseases. This session will bring together experts who are leading the way to fund basic research, break down silos, and advance science through increased collaboration, data sharing, and ultimately changing the culture of scientific research.

There is growing demand for creating a health-care workforce that looks like the population it serves. Current health-care employee statistics appear to defy the plethora of research that evidences how diversity in research and development, upper management, and corporate boards positively impacts financial performance, systemic innovation, dynamic decision-making, enhanced accountability, and, as a result, overall health outcomes.

The Milken Institute and Horizon Pharma welcome all attendees of the Future of Health Summit to join us for a networking breakfast to discuss ways in which we can all work to move the needle on diversity in health-care leadership. We invite you to join discussion tables led by industry hosts on topics including mentorship, data transparency, educating next generation leaders, and investing in health-care diversity, among others.

This session will open with a conversation with Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, moderated by CNBC's Meg Tirrell, followed by a panel discussion.

Like physical health, mental health requires awareness, care, management and vigilance. As the world comes to grips with the enormity and urgency of our global mental health crisis, we need to take stock of all tools at our disposal. To do this, there is value to segmenting all of life's stages - childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, middle age and retirement - to determine the distinct mental health and brain development needs of each. This panel will explore how specific factors - such as childhood traumas, bullying, suicidality, addiction and social isolation - affect mental health over a lifetime in order to uncover the best ways to build, maintain and reinforce mental health resilience from cradle to grave.

Part 1

• Opening Remarks Richard Ditizio, President and Chief Operating Officer, Milken Institute
• Welcoming Remarks Synim Rivers, Director, Communications, Government and Public Affairs, Horizon Pharma
• Guest Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health
• Moderator Meg Tirrell, Biotech and Pharma Reporter, CNBC

 Part 2

• Moderator Melissa Stevens, Executive Director, Center for Strategic Philanthropy, Milken Institute
• Speaker Cynthia Germanotta, President and Co-Founder, Born This Way Foundation
• Speaker Joshua Gordon, Director, National Institute of Mental Health
• Speaker Howard Spivak, Principal Deputy Director, National Institute of Justice
• Speaker Nora Super, Director of Policy and Programs, Center for the Future of Aging, Milken Institute
• Speaker Jennifer Velez, Executive Vice President, Community and Behavioral Health, RWJBarnabas Health

The first chief patient officer role was created in 2014, and since then, biopharmaceutical companies have created similar positions, restructured teams, and convened internal meetings to advance patient engagement and patient-centered practices throughout their organizations. Similarly, disease foundations that fund research to improve the lives of their patient community discovered that they, too, could benefit from being more internally focused as organizations on connecting directly with their patient community. In the world of value-based care, hospitals are also realigning the processes to ensure that patients are part of the input around what value the care is providing. The panel will highlight ways organizations are restructuring and realigning themselves to ensure they are providing the best possible patient care.

Loneliness and social isolation are on the rise, leading many to call these phenomena a public health epidemic in the United States. Loneliness is an emerging risk factor that has huge implications for personal, economic and societal well-being. This session will explore the health risks of social isolation as well as solutions including new care models and technology to strengthen social connections and, in turn, improve health outcomes.

Women are disproportionately affected by issues surrounding health, as health decision-makers, caregivers, and patients. Women make 80 percent of health-care decisions for their families, and they are much more likely to serve as the primary caregiver for a family member who falls ill. Women also utilize more health-care services than men, accounting for 57 percent of all doctors' office expenses. On top of that, women make up close to 80 percent of the health workforce. Yet only one Fortune 500 health-care company has a female CEO, and only 23 percent of executives at Fortune 500 health-care companies are women. Despite decades of mandates from Congress, women still make up less than half of clinical trial participants, and gender differences in outcomes are still inadequately studied. What initiatives are currently in place to ensure medical research and healthcare are reflecting the perspectives and priorities of women moving forward? What can all leaders do to further promote the inclusion of women at the leadership level of major health-care companies? How can industry shifts towards gender equity positively affect global health?

Over the last decade, the Food and Drug Administration has worked hard to take a more nimble approach to regulation, increase the number of approvals, prioritize truly innovative products, and integrate patient perspective into its evaluations. Now the agency is facing challenges relating to regulating medical products in the digital age - digital health technologies, machine learning algorithms, integration of data and evidence from non-traditional sources, digiceuticals, and adaptive trials based on complex biostatistical methods, and more. Is the agency prepared to regulate this brave new world unfolding at warp speed? What are the promises and potential pitfalls of these new technologies for patients?

An estimated 30.3 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, or 9.4% of the population. In 2017, the costs of diagnosed diabetes totaled $327 billion, including $237 billion in health care costs and $90 billion in reduced productivity. Unfortunately, both the incidence of diabetes and obesity as a key risk factor continue to grow. Industry, government, advocacy groups, and patients are working together to reduce this health crisis in addition to its economic burden. This session will discuss what can be done differently in order to address this costly epidemic and will ask what is stopping us from achieving better outcomes.

Living healthy and economically-secure lives through old age is a goal shared by all, but aging can pose unique hurdles for women and members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Because of disadvantageous wage gaps, care-giving responsibilities, and life-expectancy trends, women often reach age 65 with fewer financial resources to support them in retirement. Overall, women receive almost $4,000 less per year in Social Security payments than do men. Women of color face an even greater disparity. How do these factors affect their health? This session will explore the inter-sectional issues facing women as they age and opportunities to address them.

This closing session will begin with a conversation with Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, moderated by FasterCures' Tanisha Carino.

Following this discussion, Michael Milken, Chairman of the Milken Institute, will share the remarkable medical progress of the past two-plus decades along with a special retrospective of the 1998 March on Washington, which brought together hundreds of thousands of patients, physicians, elected and appointed members of the U.S. government, foundations and leaders of industry to support greater funding of our federal health and research agencies. He’ll explore what these developments have meant in terms of lives saved and extended, as well as what impact they have had for today's science and tomorrow's patients.

Part 1

• Opening Remarks Conrad Kiechel, Managing Director, Event Programming, Milken Institute
• Guest Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Moderator Tanisha Carino, Executive Director, FasterCures, Milken Institute

Part 2

• Presenter Michael Milken, Chairman, Milken Institute

From the recent resurgence of Ebola in Congo and raging wildfires in California, to disastrous earthquakes in Indonesia and the re-emerging focus on the significant impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico - the need for strategic preparedness and organized, collaborative response to global health threats brought on by disease and natural disasters is of the utmost importance. Past evidence tends to suggest that both government and private sector responders leap into action at moments of emergency, talk about plans, and - as the immediacy of the emergency begins to subside - enthusiasm and interest inevitably wanes. This session will place priority on committed action rather than false hope, and will explore strategies that ensure follow-through on pledges and promises to rebuild resilient communities and better prepare for future disasters, all while avoiding the pitfalls of distraction brought on by the next urgent crisis.