July 15 appearance at Rutgers Business School only joint appearance of campaign

NEWARK, N.J. – Rutgers Business School brings together the senior healthcare advisers to Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain to illuminate the presidential candidates' proposed healthcare plans and address questions about the future of the American healthcare system in their only scheduled joint appearance of the campaign, Tuesday, July 15 in Newark.

At the fourth annual healthcare symposium hosted by Rutgers Business School, Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., senior fellow for Project HOPE, adviser to Sen. McCain’s presidential campaign, and contributor to the McCain Healthcare Plan, will represent McCain; and David Cutler, Ph.D., Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University, adviser to Sen. Obama’s campaign, and contributor to the Obama Healthcare Plan, will represent Obama.
Obama & McCain on American Healthcare 2008 and Beyond


The program is coordinated by the Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center for Pharmaceutical Management Studies at Rutgers Business School, in partnership with the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey.

Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief of Health Affairs and on-air health policy analyst for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, will moderate.

Entitled American Healthcare 2008 and Beyond, the public program is scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at IDT’s Washington Square Conference Center, located at 520 Broad Street (17th floor) in Newark, NJ.

Rutgers Business School Dean Michael R. Cooper, Ph.D., now in his second year at the school’s helm following a distinguished 25-year career as a global CEO, credits the Lerner Center’s director, the industry relevance of the Center’s programs and research, and the strength of its corporate partnerships in healthcare for making such a program possible.

Says Cooper, “Rutgers Business School is distinguished by a strong emphasis on the rigorous analyses of industry-relevant matters that are of national importance to senior executives. As the leading business school in pharmaceutical management, Rutgers Business School and its Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center are focused on addressing the real-world management issues facing CEOs in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Advance registration is required. Admission, including on-site parking, breakfast, lunch, and refreshments, is $500. Discounted admission of $400 is offered to Rutgers alumni; employees of sponsoring companies Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Roche, Schering-Plough, and their subsidiaries; and members of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ) and BioNJ. Tables for eight are $3,200.

Visit www.business.rutgers.edu/lerner, email icastillo@business.rutgers.edu or call
973-353-1016 for more details. Click here for the symposium registration form.

Says Mahmud Hassan, Ph.D., founding director of the Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center for Pharmaceutical Management Studies and a professor of finance and economics at Rutgers Business School, “Part of the mission of the Lerner Center is to educate the public on matters of healthcare-related public policy issues. Given that over 40 million Americans are uninsured, and with the hyper-cost inflation of healthcare services, the presidential healthcare plan is a primary issue that will affect Americans for years to come.”

He continued, “The impact on cost, quality, and access to healthcare will be significantly different under each candidate's plan. We are delighted to be able to draw upon the significant intellectual and professional resources of Rutgers Business School’s pharmaceutical management program, including partners such as the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, to present this unique and exciting opportunity to examine, in an academic atmosphere, proposals to address these far-reaching issues.”

Established in 2004 through a gift from the couple for whom it is named, the Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center for Pharmaceutical Management Studies at Rutgers Business School is a vital and productive resource for world-class research and expertise. The Center’s mission focuses on expanding and disseminating knowledge on management issues of critical importance to the industry by encouraging idea exchange among industry professionals and academics through seminars and workshops; providing customized programs for life-sciences organizations; and supporting faculty and Ph.D. student research in pharmaceutical management. For additional information, visit www.business.rutgers.edu/lerner.

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Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick is an integral part of one of the nation’s oldest, largest, and most distinguished institutions of higher learning: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Founded in 1929, Rutgers Business School has been accredited since 1941 by AACSB International–the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business — a distinction that represents the hallmark of excellence in management education. Today, Rutgers Business School is educating more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students at two main campuses in New Jersey as well as six satellite locations in New Jersey, China, and Singapore. Steeped in academic excellence, with a distinguished faculty and a corps of over 27,000 successful alumni, Rutgers Business School is highly ranked by the Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal. It is recognized as among the top three business schools in the New York City metropolitan area, and ranked #10 nationwide for “Most Competitive Students” by The Princeton Review. For additional information, visit www.business.rutgers.edu.

The HealthCare Institute of New Jersey is a trade association for the research-based pharmaceutical and medical technology industry in New Jersey. Founded in 1997, the Institute serves as a unified voice for the industry and seeks to build awareness of this industry’s impact on New Jersey’s quality of life and economic well-being. There are currently 26 members of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey.

Media Contact: Bridget Daley
973-353-5177
E-mail: bdaley@business.rutgers.edu