LVHHN President and CEO A Local Voice on National Issues

President and CEO Elliot J. Sussman, M.D., voted chair-elect of The Association of American Medical Colleges

Lehigh Valley, Pa. (Nov. 5, 2007) – How will hospitals care for the growing number of people without health insurance? Will there be some form of national health care? What steps are needed to stop a potential shortage of future physicians? How will groundbreaking medical research be funded in the wake of government budget cuts?

These are just a few of the major questions facing today's ever-changing health care world. "No one person – or one hospital – can find the answers themselves," says Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network (LVHHN) president and chief executive officer Elliot J. Sussman, M.D. "But by working together with other hospitals, universities and medical education experts, we can help shape the future of health care."

LVHHN will be part of such important discussions on a national level. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) yesterday elected Sussman its chair-elect. He will work this year with AAMC chair Robert Resnick, M.D., Ph.D., of New York City's Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, then will assume the role of chair for one year starting next November.

The AAMC, a not-for-profit organization, is dedicated to enhancing the health of all through medical education and research. It represents all 143 accredited U.S. and Canadian medical schools, nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and 94 scientific societies. It's a national leader in advocating for major health care issues.

That includes addressing difficult and complex problems, such as health insurance and potential national health care plans. "Providing health care for all Americans is the right thing to do," Sussman says, "The key is finding the most effective way to accomplish that. The AAMC will carefully study and evaluate all proposals."

The United States also faces a shortage of physicians in areas such as primary care, geriatrics and gynecology, and AAMC is on the leading edge of working to increase enrollment at medical schools nationwide.

"A new medical school opened in Arizona earlier this year, and there are proposals on the table for other new schools in Pennsylvania and Florida," Sussman says. "The more we can encourage the development of new medical schools and support the programs of existing ones, the better prepared we'll be for the future."

Sussman's appointment as AAMC's chair-elect furthers LVHHN's growing national reputation as an academic community hospital. "This recognition sends an important message to our local community about how national academic medicine leaders view what we do here at LVHHN," Sussman says. "Recognition from U.S News & World Report, the Leapfrog Group, FORTUNE magazine and now the AAMC validates the good work all of us do here every day."

A premier academic community hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network includes three hospital facilities – two in Allentown and one in Bethlehem, Pa. – and Lehigh Valley Health Services, providing home health, hospice, pharmaceutical and health management services. In 2007, US News & World Report named Lehigh Valley Hospital one of America's Best Hospitals for the twelfth straight year. LVHHN's advanced regional resources include a Level I Trauma Center with added pediatric qualifications, regional Burn Center as well as kidney and pancreas transplant, perinatal/neonatal, cardiac, cancer care, and neurology and complex neurosurgery capabilities. LVHHN hospitals are designated national Magnet hospitals for excellence in nursing. LVH is one of Pennsylvania's largest teaching hospitals and is a major teaching campus of Penn State's College of Medicine.

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