Tuesdays

10:00 am-11:30 am

Online

7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, & 8/11

Five Sessions

This course is offered online via the free, easy-to-use Zoom program.

Health Care Today is one of a series of OLLI courses exploring a variety of contemporary issues facing our current health care system.  The schedule of topics to be addressed include:

July 14th: Dr. Benjamin Liptzin: Evidence Based Medicine in the Time of Covid 

The slides are available here: Evidence-Based Medicine in Time of Covid-19.pptx

July 21: Dr. Mark Pettus: An Overview of Population Health in the Berkshires 

July 28: Dr. Gordon Josephson: Covid Vaccine - Where Are We Now?

Please see the recommended reading: OLLI - Covid 19 - History in a Crisis - NEJM.pdf

The slides are available here: OLLI - Covid-19 Part I.pptx

August 4:  Dr. Diane Whitehead: Ethical Decisions in Medicine 

August 11: Dr. Gordon Josephson:  Covid-19 Monitoring - Monitoring the Pandemic 

The slides are available here: OLLI - Covid-19 Part II.pptx

Speaker bios follow:

Dr. Benjamin Liptzin is Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at Tufts University School of Medicine.  For 25 years he was Chair of Psychiatry at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA.  Prior to that he was Director of Geriatric Psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA and Director of the Geriatric Education Center at Harvard Medical School.  He received the Jack Weinberg Award in Geriatric Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association and the Distinguished Faculty Award from Tufts. He has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters.

Dr. Mark Pettus is a triple board certified internist, nephrologist, and integrative medicine physician practicing for over 25 years. Dr. Pettus is also an alumnus of The Advanced Program for Conflict Resolution, Negotiation, and Mediation at The Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Pettus currently serves as the Director of Population Health and Community Care at Berkshire Health Systems. He is the author of two books, The Savvy Patient: The Ultimate Advocate for Quality Health Care and It’s All in Your Head: Change Your Mind, Change Your Health. He serves on the teaching faculty at The Center for Mind-Body Medicine based in Washington D.C

Dr. Diane Whitehead holds a doctorate in education from Florida International University and a second doctorate in nursing practice from Walden University. She is a full-time faculty member in the doctoral programs at Walden University College of Nursing. Dr. Whitehead's textbook, Essentials of Nursing Leadership and Management has been used in nursing programs for over a decade. Her most current textbook, Advancing Organizations through Exemplary Nursing Leadership, will be published in 2021. Dr. Whitehead is a Fellow in the Academy of Nurse Educators. 

Dr. Gordon Josephson, MD, MPH is a retired former emergency physician (1977- 1997) and Chief Operating Officer (1997-2015) of Baystate Medical Practices (600 physicians and advanced practice clinicians).  In addition, he was part of a multi-specialty practice within Baystate Health in Springfield, MA. He holds a Master's of Public Health from Harvard as well as a medical degree from SUNY. He serves as Vice President of OLLI's Board of Directors and chairs its Governance Committee.

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