All are welcome to listen to one of the most frequently requested lecturers on healthcare policy. The BRI-Icahn chapter is pleased to present Dr. Robert Graboyes, who will be 
speaking about his fortress and frontiers framework for understanding barriers to innovation in American healthcare.
There are few who can illuminate the challenges of innovation in healthcare with such wit and intelligence as Dr. Graboyes. Refreshments will be served. Kindly RSVP to ensure enough food for all.
POST-EVENT SUMMARY: Dr. Graboyes gave a very interesting talk to 40 students and faculty about his model of the barriers to innovation in medicine. The fortress represents risk averse, vested interests that resist change, such as insurance companies, physicians and hospitals. The frontier is where other sectors of the economy operate, such as IT. In health care, Dr. Graboyes argued that we are unwilling to take the risks necessary to move medicine forward at the same rate IT has advanced.
In an engaging manner, Dr. Graboyes walked through several examples of where the frontier in American health care is developing, defying the trend of most of the field. He spoke passionately about his own experiences as an A fib patient, and the comfort and savings provided to him by a mobile EKG iPhone case. This allows Dr. Graboyes better control over his own health care decisions, allows him to save the system money and gives him more information about his health data.
Students had a number of questions and follow up for Dr. Graboyes, a testament to the interesting nature of his talk.
“The event exceeded expectations. It is a testament to Dr. Graboyes’ talk that many found it so engaging.” ~Hrishi Srinagesh, BRI-Icahn president and event coordinator
Dr. Robert Graboyes is a Senior Research Fellow and Health Care Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Author of “Fortress and Frontier in American Health Care,” his work asks, “How can we make health care as innovative in the next 25 years as information technology was in the past 25?”
Previously, he was health care advisor for the National Federation of Independent Business, economics professor at the University of Richmond, regional economist/director of education at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Sub-Saharan Africa economist for Chase Manhattan Bank. His work has taken him to Europe, Africa, and Central Asia. An award-winning teacher, he holds faculty appointments at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia. Previously he taught at George Mason University and the George Washington University.
His degrees include a PhD in Economics from Columbia University; master’s from Columbia University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the College of William and Mary; and a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia. He has chaired the National Economists Club, Richmond Association for Business Economics, and National Association for Business Economics Healthcare Roundtable.
He won the Reason Foundation’s 2014 Bastiat Prize for Journalism, an international competition for “writing that best demonstrates the importance of individual liberty and free markets with originality, wit, and eloquence.”