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GE executive to lecture at WSU School of Medicine on 'Large Emloyers' New Strategies in Health Care'

Robert S. Galvin, MD, director of global health care for General Electric Co., will speak at the Wayne State University School of Medicine on new strategies developed by large employers to handle health-care issues. The lecture will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21, in Scott Hall, 540 E. Canfield.

Dr. Galvin is in charge of the design and performance of GE’s health programs, which total more than $2 billion annually, as well as GE’s medical services, which encompass more than 1 million visits in more than 20 countries. In addition, he is part of GE’s health-care business development team, a designer of products and services for the health-care industry.

Dr. Galvin focuses on issues of market-based health policy and financing with a special interest in quality management and improvement. He has been a leader in attempting to apply “six sigma,” a quality-improvement program, to health care and developing a business case for quality.

He was a member of the Strategic Framework Board of the National Quality Forum and sits on the boards of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the Washington Business Group on Health as well as on the Advisory Board of the Council of Health Care Economics. He is a founding member of the Leapfrog Group, a coalition of health-care benefit providers that works to improve patient safety.

Dr. Galvin is an associate professor adjunct at Yale University and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He attended the University of Pennsylvania for both his undergraduate and medical degrees. He received an MBA in health-care management from Boston University in 1995.

This program is part of the annual Robert E. Mack, MD, Lecture, which is designed to promote education and continuing discussion of administrative and management issues in academic medicine.

Dr. Mack, professor emeritus of internal medicine, is a former WSU associate dean for medical center relations and vice president for medical and educational affairs for the Detroit Medical Center.

With more than 1,000 medical students, WSU is among the nation’s largest medical schools. Together with its clinical partner, the Wayne State University Physician Group, the school is a leader in patient care and medical research in a number of areas, including cancer, genetics, the neurosciences and women’s and children's health.