Metro Philadelphia Healthcare Power Players 2022

Dr. Victor A. Diaz is a family medicine physician in Philadelphia. In 1986, he received his medical degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra’s School of Health Sciences in the Dominican Republic, and has been in practice for over 30 years. He completed his internship and family medicine residency at Chestnut Hill Hospital and completed a faculty development fellowship at Jefferson’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Diaz is currently an assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson University. He speaks English and is fluent in Spanish.

What can Pennsylvania policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare?
Despite the many advances in health equity, our clinical settings are still falling short in things as simple as having linguistically and culturally appropriate signage for visitors or phone prompts for callers in languages other than English. I would like the policymakers to advocate for funded mandates to provide these services and also for the recruitment and retention of trained, bilingual support staff who are appropriately compensated–not only for the clinical work they do, but also for the additional interpretative service they provide to our non-English speaking patients.

When and why did you decide to pursue a career in healthcare?
My biggest influence was my father, who was a general surgeon and a general practitioner. I grew up in New York City surrounded by physicians, especially Hispanic physicians, and their impact on me was evident from a very young age. For as long as I can remember, my extended family has always put a high value on service, health equity, and education.

How do you see the healthcare industry evolving in the next five years?
If the industry truly wants to reduce burnout and retain its workforce, it needs to embrace a work-life balance, focus on providing value-based healthcare, expand mental health services, and overhaul elderly care, especially some of the deplorable circumstances witnessed in so many of our senior living and nursing homes. We also need to advocate for the elimination of the overwhelming amount of paperwork we have to deal with daily. Despite the implementation of electronic medical record systems, it seems we can’t come out from under a steady stream of forms and other hard-copy documents.

Dr. Anne Dougherty is an audiologist with over 15 years of experience and the owner of Center City Hearing. She has lived in Center City with her husband and two children for the past 12 years and is excited to be serving people in her community. Dr. Dougherty provides patients with hearing testing and comprehensive hearing aid services and is committed to finding solutions that work for each individual’s unique lifestyle and goals. Her belief that practitioners should treat patients the way they’d want to be treated themselves is evident in her thorough, compassionate approach.

Dr. Faith Dyson-Washington is the CEO of Community Behavioral Health and a clinical psychologist who cares deeply about ending health disparities and improving health outcomes for marginalized communities. Since taking the helm of CBH in 2020, Dr. Washington has employed her clinical expertise and innovative vision to establish CBH as an organization poised for continued growth that is taking on the challenges and opportunities forged by a dynamic and rapidly changing healthcare landscape.

What can Pennsylvania policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare? 
First, they can make sure that healthcare, especially mental health, is given the attention, funding, and support that it deserves. Second, they can make sure reimbursement rates for publicly-funded health insurance are increased. Research shows that when rates are increased, utilization increases. Third, they can support integrated care so that individuals receive mental and physical healthcare all in one place, and can readily access the healthcare they need when they need it. The goal is for individuals to receive whole-person care that addresses their overall wellness, including social determinants of health.

When and why did you decide to pursue a career in healthcare?
Born, raised, and educated in Philadelphia, I understand the hardships associated with being part of a marginalized community. I was placed in foster care because my birth mother suffered from severe and persistent mental illness, and I am grateful that I was adopted and have the support of my birth and adoptive families. I focused my studies and career on mental health so I could help other families that were struggling to survive.

How do you see the healthcare industry evolving in the next five years?
In the next five years, healthcare evolution will be marked by increases in the number of patients and people needing healthcare, increased data sharing and interoperability, and an increased focus on equitable access as consumers become empowered with knowledge. There will be innovation and scientific breakthroughs, and I also hope for greater attention to overall well-being. Undoubtedly, these innovations will increase costs. As the healthcare industry continues to undergo rapid changes, we must work to make sure that everyone has a right and access to quality healthcare.

Dr. Chris Fariello is the founder and director of PhIIRST and has over 25 years of experience as an educator, trainer, public speaker, writer, and therapist. Dr. Fariello is nationally recognized as a relationship and sexuality expert and has appeared on numerous news and talk shows, radio programs, and in newspaper and magazine articles. Dr. Fariello remains active in leadership roles in his professional fields, and has published two books and contributed to several video and book publications.

What can Pennsylvania policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare?
There are several factors that could contribute to increasing equitable access to healthcare, including raising public and provider awareness of racial and ethnic disparities in care, expanding health insurance coverage, improving the capacity and number of providers in underserved communities, and increasing the knowledge base on causes and interventions.

When and why did you decide to pursue a career in healthcare?
I have been interested in mental health for as far back as I can remember. I have always been fascinated with the human condition–the brain is such a remarkable organ. The ability to rewire the brain in order to change our perceptions and increase our quality of life is a never-ending joy!

How do you see the healthcare industry evolving in the next five years?
I would love to see our healthcare system grow and adapt to the needs of the community. Mental health needs greater funding for research to better understand the impact it has on our community. Increased access to care and medications is needed to assist with improving the quality of life for all. Healthcare can not be left to for-profit industries to decide who, when, and what kind of care people receive.

Dr. Jon Fisher is a board-certified family medicine physician, a member of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, and the owner of Dr. Fisher’s Medical Weight Loss & Aesthetic Centers. He is also on staff at several hospitals, including Jefferson Frankford Hospital. Dr. Fisher established the centers over 25 years ago, and he offers real weight loss solutions and additional cosmetic procedures. Dr. Fisher and his team operate out of four locations, providing non-surgical approaches to weight loss through diets, appetite suppressants, sublingual energy sprays, HCG diet plans, and B12 and lipotropic diet injections.

Karen Flaherty-Oxler, MSN, RN, is the medical center director of the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She is a retired rear admiral of the US Navy and served as the senior vice president, chief nurse, and patient experience executive of the Atlantic Health System in New Jersey from 2016 through 2018. Prior to taking on that role, she spent several years in various progressive positions at the Lancaster General Health System in Pennsylvania. Karen spent more than two years as the deputy surgeon general and deputy chief for the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in the US Navy. Before this, Karen also served as the associate director for patient and nursing services at the Crescenz VAMC for around six years. She received a master’s degree in Nursing Administration and a certificate of administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

Marianne Fray is the CEO of Maternity Care Coalition, a 42-year-old community-based nonprofit serving pregnant and postpartum women, birthing people, and parenting families impacted by racial and social inequities throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania. Its mission is to improve the health and well-being of families while also enhancing school readiness for children up to three years old. Marianne earned a bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College and a master’s degree in Business Administration from St. Joseph’s University. Marianne is a Certified Association Executive, holds an IOM certificate in Nonprofit Management, and earned a certificate in Project Management.

What can Pennsylvania policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare?
Policymakers must ensure equitable access to health coverage for pregnant people. Pennsylvania should pursue Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage for pregnant immigrants and their unborn children. Policymakers can also incentivize high-quality care through Medicaid payment reforms. Medicaid covers around 30% of births in the state and is the biggest single-payer of maternity services in the US, so exploring targeted payment reforms would improve the quality of maternity care. Finally, Pennsylvania should protect comprehensive reproductive health access, since it has been proven that restrictive reproductive health laws–which disproportionately impact Black and Brown families–are associated with poor birth outcomes.

When and why did you decide to pursue a career in healthcare?
My desire for health access and equity was born when I was a child and I learned that my mother had to give birth to my older sister in a doctor’s waiting room in segregated Alabama. When I was a teenager, I had unprotected sex, became pregnant, was ill-treated at the local ‘free’ clinic, put out by my parents, abandoned by my ‘boyfriend,’ then subsequently miscarried alone–that’s when my determination to fight ignorance and inequitable health access was cemented.

How do you see the healthcare industry evolving in the next five years?
We will see an increase in the use of technology. Telehealth aids with access, but will disadvantage those without broadband access. Also, collected data may be misinterpreted without culturally competent providers. As healthcare systems take over individual practices and close birthing hospitals, there will be less choice and more expense to access care. This will continue to adversely impact providers’ abilities to know and meet their patients’ needs. Finally, as specialty areas grow and more provider roles emerge, there will be more complexity to navigate in the healthcare system. People will either have to opt-out or seek unsafe options of care.

Dr. Susan L. Furth, MD, PhD, is an attending physician and the chief scientific officer and executive vice president at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She’s also a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology. Dr. Furth was formally appointed as the Edmond F. Notebaert Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research in July 2021 in relation to her role as chief scientific officer. She is the former president of the Society for Pediatric Research, and was named to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2017.

Dr. John Geisler has over 25 years of research experience with a consistent pharmacological focus on trying to work at the root of problems in metabolic drug discovery. Dr. Geisler previously held roles at Pfizer, Ionis, and Johnson & Johnson. His expertise in mitochondrial energy expenditure comes from years of attempting to partition lipids to restore insulin sensitivity and reduce the comorbidities associated with the ‘over-nutritional phenotype.’ From this work stemmed a broader understanding of new mitochondrial targeted applications and significant gaps in pharmacological interventions for insidious movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Geisler holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of Tennessee and conducted an ORNL and fellowship at Yale University that focused on whole-body flux.

What can Pennsylvania policymakers do to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare?
The funding through Ben Franklin Technology Partners provided a very fortunate opportunity to enable what appeared to be a highly risky idea. The IND is open and we are working our way into a potentially breakthrough platform for a host of serious illnesses rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction (i.e. ALS, MS, TBI, Parkinson, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s Disease). If you want quality healthcare, doctors need a great toolbox and policymakers should attempt to provide ample funding to those looking to bring forward fresh and innovative ideas. These ideas typically come from outside of Big Pharma, where from my experience risk tolerance is low.

When and why did you decide to pursue a career in healthcare?
I believe my phenotype has always been rooted in a deep curiosity about how things work, like cars, plants, the complexity of our bodies, earth, space, and so on.  Sometime during my middle-school years, I knew I needed to learn much more about science, so I took A&P, physics, and advanced biology while working afternoons at the veterinary hospital. But living in the suburbs of Detroit, I kept auto shop class! My parents came from Swiss and German immigrants. They grew up during the Great Depression, served in WWII, and managed to raise five kids, so I felt I needed to not squander what they have been through and have done for us. Initially, I set a lot of limits, like working five years as a diagnostic technician at Abbott Labs before moving on to pursue my PhD. Collectively, I think that this odd path gave me some chutzpah to push for disease-modifying drugs, ask better questions, read a lot, see the serious gaps in unfounded dogmas, then reach for the fences in a quest for meaningful medicines.

How do you see the healthcare industry evolving in the next five years?
When we launched Mitochon around eight years ago, there were not many discussions about targeting mitochondria. Our platform, which targets the entire mitochondrial physiology, was considered completely unorthodox, although spot on physiologically from my viewpoint. Now,  almost every conference talk mentions mitochondria. I think the idea of what a ‘drug’ is has changed too. People are breaking down silos that have plagued progress in treating diseases like Alzheimer’s. Historically, pharma only liked ‘one drug-one indication’ and ‘one target-one pill’ approaches to pleiotropy, requiring polypharmacy. What if the pharmacology of a drug is pleiotropic and works on several pathways that have issues? That’s what I’d call progress!