President and CEO Jay S. Feldstein, DO '81, was joined recently by Bruce Feinberg, DO ’82, chief medical officer of Cardinal Health Specialty. On the PCOM Perspectives podcast, they discuss Feinberg’s work as a medical oncologist, his opinion on the future of the healthcare industry and value-based care, and lessons learned since becoming a radio and podcast host.
PLAY PCOM PERSPECTIVES: The Future of Value-Based Care
When Bruce Feinberg, DO ’82, first appeared on PCOM Perspectives five years ago, the pharmaceutical industry was facing some of its biggest distribution challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, pharmaceuticals are one of the fastest-growing costs in health care—a trend Feinberg doesn’t see going away any time soon—with recent research showing that drug shortages in the U.S. tend to last longer and have a more severe impact than in Canada.
“I do think it's a foundational problem where there isn’t going to be an easy fix, and we’re going to have to examine core concepts of the American system of health care,” Feinberg said.
In addition to the evolution of pharmaceuticals, Feinberg’s decades of experience in the business side of health care has allowed him to see other systemic challenges. One example is the lack of interoperability in the way the system communicates, which limits the ability of care teams at different institutions to engage with one another and better understand what's happening with a patient.
“We now have a fragmented and fractured system in which we have episodic care where the caregivers who are intimate with the patient are not involved," Feinberg said. “But I’m hoping these things, which are being written about all the time, will move us in a direction where we’ll try to say the system got over-fragmented and that we need to find a way, not necessarily through business consolidation, but through rethinking the way in which we communicate.”
Feinberg is proof of this belief and has changed the way he communicates with others in the healthcare industry by launching a podcast. The Weekly Checkup launched last year as a result of the popularity of his radio show on WSB Radio in Atlanta. The podcast contains over 20 episodes covering a variety of healthcare topics.
Dr. Feinberg describes his podcast as a way for him to still add meaningful contributions to public health and health education without being directly involved in patient care, but notes that stepping away from patient care hasn’t always sat well with him.
Knowing Dr. Feldstein experienced a similar transition in his career, Feinberg asks him on the podcast whether he ever felt guilty making the career pivot. This allows for Dr. Feldstein to share his own experience with burnout and his belief that there are other ways for physicians to make an impact on the future of health care that are outside of patient care.
“I still, you know, am clinically active. I still read the same journals I read when I was seeing patients every day. I still love medicine,” said Dr. Feldstein. “And I'll say now the pinnacle of my career is the ability to teach the physicians of the future, it’s really rewarding.”
To hear the full conversation or listen to past episodes of PCOM Perspectives, visit Spotify, Soundcloud or the Office of the President.
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Associate Director, News and Media Relations
Email: gabrielde2@pcom.edu
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