Amy Berman prepares for her image guided radiation therapy. I live with stage IV cancer—cancer that has spread to the far reaches of my body, an incurable disease, a terminal diagnosis. But if you saw me—if our carts randomly bumped into each other in the supermarket—you would never think…
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The house is burning with a child and his elderly grandmother inside. Which one should be saved? Too often, this feels like the question being posed when thinking about the allocation of resources, whether through policy action or philanthropic investments. But this is the wrong question. In most cases, there…
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Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a large and well-designed study of a post-hospital readmission reduction program called the “virtual ward,” which grew up in the UK and was tested by our cousins to the north in Toronto. The model partakes of some elements of…
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Kathryn Dineen Wriston, right, with her beloved husband Walter B. Wriston, circa early 1990s. (Photo A) Kathy Wriston was an elegant and accomplished woman whose delightful sense of humor and natural openness drew others to her—and to the causes she passionately supported. She will be sorely missed. Her death…
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I think it would be safe to say that most of us have trouble facing our own mortality. The idea that tomorrow isn’t promised fails to get many of us to actually live that way (I know I’m guilty). Longer term and more connected to the John A. Hartford Foundation’s…
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Funders share information on investments in palliative care at the recent convening spearheaded by the Hartford Foundation. Palliative care is an essential component of care for the seriously ill. Yet, the term is often misunderstood by policymakers, the public, health care providers, and, no surprise, even those in philanthropy…
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From left: Rebecca Brune, VP of Strategic Planning and Growth, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of San Antonio; Regina Bonnevie, MD, Medical Director, Peninsula Community Health Services in Port Orchard, WA; Peggy Cary, Senior VP of Finance & Internal Audit, Methodist Healthcare Ministries; and Diane Powers, Associate Director, Division of Integrated…
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Last week, the Institute of Medicine released a new report titled Dying in America. The committee that worked on the report included some long-time grantees and friends of the John A. Hartford Foundation, such as June Simmons of the Partners in Care Foundation, Jean Kutner, a Beeson Scholar and faculty…
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Hartford Trustees Kathryn D. Wriston, left, and Lile R. Gibbons, at a recent reception honoring them as personal supporters of the MSTAR program. Over the past 20 years, the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program—a summer internship that draws physicians-in-training into the field of geriatrics and aging…
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Many of the John A. Hartford Foundation’s grant projects are working hard to improve the quality of health care for the older adults who are dually enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. As a group, these low-income, older adults have more complex health conditions and a greater need for coordinated…
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