Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research
Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research. Dr. Carroll has published some of the seminal work on physician views on various types of health care reform, and continues to be a sought after speaker on the topic and has been called upon to appear on national TV and radio programs, including the Colbert Report, to talk about the Affordable Care Act and its implications for the future. He is the Primary Investigator on a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study the true impact of malpractice claims on the practice of medicine. He has been called upon to present his findings at numerous meetings and at a variety of settings.
Associate Director of Children's Health Services Research
Dr. Carroll's research focuses on the study of information technology to improve pediatric care and areas of health policy including physician malpractice, the pharmaceutical industry/physician relationship, and health care reform. He has published research on the relationship between pharma and health professionals, and how educational interventions can affect their interaction and behavior and has presented his findings in professional interviews and platforms.
Leading Pediatric Informaticist in the U.S.
Dr. Carroll was one of the first to study the use of mobile devices, such as Palm Pilots, in actual care and has written numerous publications on the subject. He has held millions of dollars in various government agency grants to explore the use of information technology in health care and is one of the leading pediatric informaticists in the U.S. Dr. Carroll has also served in this capacity in committees for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is the co-founder of Medical Data Solutions, one of the first software companies to create programs for health professionals for mobile devices.
Co-author of Don't Swallow Your Gum: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health
Dr. Carroll earned a BA in chemistry from Amherst College, an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an MS in health services from the University of Washington, where he was also a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. He is the co-author of Don't Swallow Your Gum: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health, published by St.Martin's Press. His work has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and many other national publications and he has appeared on programs such as Good Morning America, CBS Evening News, ABC News Now, and The Colbert Report.
Check out Dr. Carroll's blog, The Incidental Economist.
The Affordable Care Act: Preparing for 2014 and Beyond
Listening to media coverage about the US health care system, it can seem impossible to get a real handle on what's going on. Moreover, understanding what the future holds for health care reform, and how it will affect people, businesses, and the country doesn't appear possible. No year is more critical than the next, when most of the major regulations and changes go into effect. Dr. Carroll, a leading expert on health care reform, uses publicly available data and unbiased research to cut through the rhetoric and clearly explain the coming changes, including:
The Medicaid Expansion: What will happen in different states? What will it mean for individuals? For physicians? For hospitals? For the health care industry?
The Health Insurance Exchanges: Where do we stand in the implementation of this critical endeavor? What will it mean for businesses? For individuals?
New payment structures: What will Accountable Care mean to you? How will reimbursement change for health care providers?
New regulations: The ACA brings with it new taxes, new fees, and new rules. Many of these are changing all of the time. How will they affect your industry?
Dr. Carroll has published some of the seminal work on physician views on various types of health care reform, and continues to be a sought after speaker on the topic. He has been called upon to appear on national TV and radio programs, including the Colbert Report, to talk about health care reform and the Affordable Care Act and its implications for the future.
The ABC's of the ACA (Affordable Care Act)
The Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, and Obamacare lives on. However, the future of healthcare is far from stable. The ruling made the Medicaid expansion "optional", making the future murky for the 17 million Americans who should become uninsured through Medicaid in the future. Moreover, the political landscape of health care reform is still shifting, making the upcoming election a pivotal turning point in how our health care system works.
Unfortunately, listening to media coverage about the US health care system, it can seem impossible to get a real handle on what's going on. Understanding what the future holds for health care reform, and how it will affect people, businesses, and the country doesn't appear possible. Dr. Carroll, a leading expert on health care reform, uses publicly available data and unbiased research to cut through the rhetoric and clearly explain the issues with our current system. He explains how the Affordable Care Act will really work, details what it contains, and how it will likely be implemented over the next decade. At the conclusion, audience members truly gain an understanding of the complexity of the problem along with the trade-offs that are inevitable in trying to fix the $2.7 trillion US health care system.
Global Healthcare: What Can the US Health Care System Learn From Other Countries?
As we in the US continue to fight about how to fix our health care system, many are starting to look globally to see what other systems can teach us about reform. Contrary to what many in the media often portray, there are many, many different kinds of health care systems all over the world. Some do better in terms of quality, some do better in terms of access, and almost all of them do better in terms of costs. There are trade-offs, though, to many of the approaches that other countries take, and merely focusing on one or a few aspects in particular fails to give the full understanding of the complexities involved in comparing other health care systems to our own.
Dr. Carroll, a leading expert on health care policy, will walk audience members through the design of a number of countries' health care systems, explain how they differ from ours in terms of cost, quality, innovation, technology, wait times, coverage, and flexibility. He will explain how many of them made the choices they did, and what that has meant for their past and future. Finally, he will show how adopting some of the ideas behind them, while leading to inevitable tradeoffs, could make the US health care system much more successful.
Moving Forward: The Future of Information Technology In Health Care
Although great improvements in the use of information technology always seem to be right around the corner, our health care system is still in the stone age with respect to its use. It is shocking, and somewhat embarrassing, that while computers and information systems are the backbone of nearly every other industry or endeavor in the world, the health care system often lacks even the simplest of improvements. The HITECH Act promises to change all of this, and claims are being made that real innovation is just around the corner, but there are any number of barriers still standing in the way of progress. Dr. Carroll discusses the many attempts made, why they have succeeded or failed, and how we can move forward. He covers the many misunderstandings of information technology, the potential it holds, and the limitations that are often ignored.
Dr. Carroll was one of the first to study the use of mobile devices, such as Palm Pilots, in actual care and has written numerous publications on the subject. He has held millions of dollars in various government agency grants to explore the use of information technology in health care and is one of the leading pediatric informaticists in the U.S. Dr. Carroll has also served in this capacity in committees for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is the co-founder of Medical Data Solutions, one of the first software companies to create programs for health professionals for mobile devices.
Audio Clips
08-17-12 - Dr. Aaron E Carroll on the Affordable Care Act & Medicare
07-03-12 - Affordable Care Act Upheld: The Supreme Court Rests
06-29-12 - Kevin Williamson & Dr. Aaron Carroll Debate the Issue of Healthcare
06-25-12 - How Can We Fight Obesity at a Societal Level?
06-01-12 - Dr. Aaron Carroll & Prof. Eric Segall Debate the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act
03-26-12 - The Supreme Court and the Individual Mandate
