LSU Health Med Students Get Firsthand Health Policy Experience

The first class of Summer Health Policy Fellows at LSU Health New Orleans will receive certificates of completion Friday, August 12, 2016, at an on-campus luncheon sponsored by AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana. The event is from 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m. at the Medical Education Building, 1901 Perdido Street.

The six LSU Health New Orleans medical students – Sharis Steib, Michael Okoronkwo, Hayes Patrick, Louis Monnig, Grant Clinkingbeard and Jamie Bolden – spent about two months in Washington, DC, with Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, Representative Steve Scalise and the Energy and Commerce Committee, at the American Public Health Association, as well as the Congressional Research Service and the National Association of County and City Health Officials. They researched topics from a policy perspective that included Zika, the manufacture and costs of prescription drugs, opioid abuse, public health practices in school-based health clinics, lead, concussions, and Medicaid expansion. A sample of their diverse policy experiences included participation in Congressional hearings, attendance at National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine roundtables, developing policy recommendations and providing briefings on topics of interest to congressional leaders. Group meetings in Washington with physicians who hold leadership positions at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health provided the fellows with concrete illustrations on the role physicians can play in shaping health care and public health policy to improve the health of the nation.