We asked the Chair of our Board of Directors, Dr. Gregory Hagan, a few questions about himself and his involvement with ICH. Read on to learn more!
1. How would you describe your involvement with ICH?
I have had the privilege of serving as Chair of the ICH Board of Directors for the past 1½ years. I have been a member of the BOD since 2017.
2. What is your current role, outside of ICH?
I retired after nearly 40 years of pediatrics practice this past January.
3. What is your public health or healthcare background?
In some sense, I have always seen public health as integral to the delivery of good primary care. I spent the bulk of my career working in community health centers with vulnerable populations, including 18 years @ CHA. That clinical work led inevitably to a growing interest in healthy communities as a precondition for healthy individuals. I have advocated for improved resources and services for children and families throughout my career, including as President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. I have focused primarily on early childhood resources and supports for families of young children, including research on novel approaches to improve behavioral health care for troubled children and families in primary care. While serving as Chief of Pediatrics at CHA and Medical Director at several CHA sites, I was focused on a variety of population health initiatives.
4. What made you interested in joining ICH as a member of the Board?
In my role as Chief of Pediatrics @ CHA, I was a member of CHA’s Academic Council. This afforded me with a chance to hear ongoing updates about the high-quality work that ICH is known for. Based on this, when offered a position on the ICH BOD, I was delighted to accept and do what I can to support ICH’s work and mission.
5. What public health or healthcare issues have been on your mind lately?
I have long found nearly everything about health care delivery in the US to be maddening and infuriating. We spend so much and receive so little value in return!
I won’t even dignify the US health care sector by referring to it as a health care “system”, because there is nothing systematic about it. Instead, healthcare in the US is characterized by outmoded, irrational and inefficient legacy arrangements with the successive accretion of small-bore “improvements”. (The only thing that could be described as “efficient” about US health care is the many astoundingly efficient methods of diverting public finds into private pockets, resulting in no meaningful health benefits for individual or community health, but great benefits for corporate America and a small number of venture capitalists. Don’t get me started about the likes of Ralph de la Torre or Sen. Rick “Medicare fraud” Scott!!)
6. What are you most excited about for the future of ICH?
Trends in health care come and go, but I sincerely hope that policy makers do not lose their belated enthusiasm for community based, participatory research. This is, of course, an area of particular expertise for ICH, and I am excited about how ICH can be an influential voice for both high-quality scientific research, as well as for empowerment in communities traditionally excluded from a meaningful voice or the requisite resources to truly improve community health.
7. What are your hobbies or things you like to do for fun?
Other than kids, families and child health, I have always been passionate about two other things: physical activity—If I’m awake, I’m probably walking, biking or hiking—and music. I’ve certainly never been an especially gifted musician, but a million years ago, before career and family, I did support myself for a year playing music. Now, in retirement, I have (perhaps foolishly) taken up a new and devilishly difficult instrument, the dobro. (Sort of a lovechild between a guitar, a banjo and a pedal steel…If you’re unfamiliar with the instrument, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whg2viEY3eU
8. Do you have any plans for the summer? Anything that you are looking forward to?
Civilizing our new puppy! Practicing the dobro. Already went hiking in the White Mountains for a week. I love Summer! Also, I’m going to a family wedding in Colorado in October, but my wife and I have arranged to visit old friends in Sacramento and Davis first. While we’re flying out to the left coast, one really cool thing I’m looking forward to is taking Amtrak from Sacramento to Denver, followed by hiking in the Rockies for 5 days.