By Katherine Capps, Co-Founder and Executive Director, GTMRx Institute
June 11, 2019
The GTMRx Institute is fortunate to be led by accomplished and active board members who have long been voices of change. The international influence of one of those voices will be celebrated tonight at the Kennedy Forum in Chicago. Trusted Healers: Dr. Paul Grundy and the Global Healthcare Crusade is a book written by Dan Pelino (with Bud Ramey), illuminating the life work of our founding board member and my friend, Paul.
The Kennedy Forum was created by former U.S. Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy to enhance access to mental health care. I recalled recently that, on November 7, 2007, Patrick Kennedy also gave the keynote address at the first Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative “Call-to-Action” Summit at the Columbus Club in Washington, D.C.—the meeting that launched the work of the PCPCC. Paul was the founding president of the PCPCC; I was there, too, and was honored to work with Paul and other visionaries who support safer, more accessible and effective patient-centered care.
Kennedy’s forward to this new book, which traces the evolution of health care and Paul’s leadership as the godfather of the primary care medical home movement, is a poetic milestone on this long journey of shared passion for better health and better care for us all. The vision of the GTMRx Institute, to enhance life by ensuring appropriate and personalized use of medication and gene therapies, aligns with the patient-centered perspective that weaves like a common thread through this work.
With insights from dozens of experts and leading health care professionals, the book delves into what works in health care and what’s needed for it to work better—in leadership, access to care, technology, wellness, patient engagement and more.
Paul has led a remarkable life. His upbringing influenced a life of service, and his early work informed his passion for and commitment to primary care. Until last year, he served for nearly two decades as the chief medical officer and global director of IBM’s health care transformation group.
Paul is a retired senior diplomat in the U.S. State Department, serving under the Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. He has been decorated with numerous awards for important work that extends back to the AIDS epidemic and the first U.S. policy and program to address it in Africa.
Conversations with Paul are inevitably eye-opening for me. His perspective has always extended to how health care is practiced internationally (he did a post-doctorate fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Occupational Health in the International Environment), so he is one of those rare individuals who looks at our nation’s system and truly sees a global picture.
The official release date for the book is September 10, 2019, but you can pre-order the book now. Kudos to you, Paul, for making a PRIMARY difference in so many lives. Hats off to our Sherpa.
