Latest Interviews
Showing 1–14 of 14 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute23 min
Conversation with CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz & HHS Chief Counselor Chris Klomp | Global Conference
Mehmet Oz, Chris Klomp, Esther Krofah
Under the strategic mandate "Making America Healthy Again," CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and HHS leadership are overhauling the U.S. healthcare system by shifting from fee-for-service to value-based models that target upstream chronic disease prevention and address the nation's 27% unfilled prescription rate. The administration is enforcing strict integrity measures to eliminate $100 billion in annual fraud while simultaneously deploying AI to modernize legacy infrastructure and accelerate FDA drug approvals from 15 years to under five. These initiatives aim to align U.S. drug pricing with global "Most Favored Nation" standards and restore public trust in federal health agencies to counter competitive gaps with international rivals like China.
- Milken Institute54 min
The Next Era of Health | Global Conference 2026
Esther Krofah, Robert Bradway, Nancy Brown, Alicia Jackson, Myechia Minter-Jordan, Dipen Parekh
Addressing a critical demographic tipping point and a $1 trillion caregiver gap, stakeholders including AARP, ARPA-H, and the American Heart Association are reforming U.S. healthcare to bridge the divide between technological innovation and clinical delivery. Initiatives range from deploying agentic AI to extend cardiovascular prevention to counties lacking specialists, to accelerating long-term care research through new regulatory pathways and a target reduction of drug discovery timelines to under five years. Concurrently, global competition drives a strategic pivot toward genomic integration and value-based models, with specific commitments to reduce Lipoprotein(a) levels by 95% and establish federal tax credits for the nation's 63 million caregivers.
- Milken Institute53 min
Catalyzing Capital, Innovation, and Impact to Advance Women's Health | Global Conference 2026
Esther Krofah, Jill Biden, Diana Ramos, Kalahn Taylor-Clark, Afton Vechery
The Women's Health Network, comprising 170 organizations, launched a $1 billion funding initiative led by Merck's Health Catalytic Fund to address century-old data gaps and the $2 billion annual productivity loss caused by menopause. Driven by strategic partnerships like California's PRIMA screening tool and private sector innovations such as Modern Fertility, the coalition is leveraging artificial intelligence and capital to de-risk early-stage commercialization while targeting a 50% reduction in maternal mortality. This convergence of philanthropic resources and consumer demand aims to shift medical research from male-centric models to comprehensive care for the 51% of the global population that women represent.
- Milken Institute21 min
US Department of Health & Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill | Future of Health Summit 2025
The "Make America Healthy Again" agenda reorients the HHS from reactive sick care to preventive health by restoring the CDC's 1946 mission, recruiting AI and scientific specialists, and prioritizing radical transparency to rebuild public trust. This strategy integrates internal AI deployment and voluntary drug price negotiations to accelerate innovation while shifting federal cooperation with states toward data-driven surveillance and SNAP-funded nutrition improvements. Although government shutdowns have impacted staff morale, the administration targets a revitalized healthcare infrastructure through updated dietary guidelines and sustainable partnerships with industry and academia to combat chronic disease and pandemic risks.
- Milken Institute54 min
The Future of Biomedical Research and Innovation | Future of Health Summit 2025
Esther Krofah, Robert Califf, Julie Gerberding, Sharmila Makhija, Elias Zerhouni
A comprehensive review of the U.S. biomedical ecosystem reveals that the nation's seven-pillar research framework is currently threatened by a convergence of reduced federal funding, immigration restrictions, and ideological pressures on universities, all while global competitors like China and Singapore accelerate their own centralized health strategies. Despite possessing a premier research engine, the United States suffers from a critical implementation gap where $5.4 trillion in annual healthcare spending fails to address fundamental issues like low life expectancy, high medical bankruptcy, and a severe erosion of public trust in scientific institutions. Strategic recommendations now urge a shift toward a unified national life sciences strategy that leverages federated data infrastructure, aligns financial incentives with preventive care, and mobilizes political and voter engagement to restore the country's competitive edge in global innovation.
- Milken Institute33 min
Conversation with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary & CMS Admin Mehmet Oz | Future of Health Summit 2025
Marty Makary, Mehmet Oz, Esther Krofah
The administration is driving a comprehensive healthcare overhaul that combines aggressive drug pricing strategies like "Most Favored Nation" with FDA reforms designed to slash biosimilar development times by reducing regulatory hurdles and replacing animal testing with computational models. Simultaneously, federal agencies are deploying $3 billion in savings from terminated contracts and AI tools to combat $100 billion in annual fraud while restructuring internal operations to accelerate clinical trial reviews and ensure domestic supply chain security. These initiatives aim to bridge the gap between the U.S.'s $4.9 trillion annual health expenditure and its lagging life expectancy by fostering data interoperability, enforcing new transparency rules, and launching the "Trump Rx" initiative to secure lower-cost, domestically produced medications for consumers.
- Milken Institute28 min
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz | Global Conference 2025
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz has launched a strategic overhaul targeting an $80 billion annual savings by combating fraud, consolidating fragmented IT systems, and addressing lifestyle-driven chronic illness through the "Make America Healthy Again" initiative. The administration is restructuring federal incentives to support governors, deploying AI for real-time health notifications, and terminating wasteful contractors to fix systemic inefficiencies that currently cost the nation billions in duplicate payments and fraud. Oz warns that without these immediate structural interventions and a shift toward individual health responsibility, the Medicare and Medicaid system faces the risk of catastrophic collapse.
- Milken Institute21 min
A Conversation with Former First Lady of the United States Jill Biden | Global Conference 2025
At the 28th annual Milken Institute Global Conference, Dr. Jill Biden and Esther Kroffa outlined the Women's Health Network's strategy to address historical data gaps and the $1 trillion global economic opportunity by shifting funding reliance to the private sector. The initiative targets critical breakthroughs in areas like endometriosis diagnostics and Alzheimer's care while deploying a digital platform and pooled investment fund to dismantle data silos and accelerate inclusive innovation. By reframing women's health as a universal business imperative rather than a niche category, the network aims to impact millions of lives globally by 2025 through enhanced research inclusion and strategic capital allocation.
- Milken Institute20 min
A Conversation with First Lady of the United States Jill Biden | Middle East and Africa Summit 2024
Launched in November 2023, President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden initiated the Women's Health Initiative to rectify century-old biases in clinical research by allocating over $1 billion across the NIH, DOD, and ARPA-H for targeted studies on heart disease, endometriosis, and menopause. This federal mobilization aims to eliminate diagnostic delays and economic losses exceeding $2 billion annually, with projections suggesting the initiative could unlock $1 trillion in global economic value by 2040 by reintegration millions of women into the workforce. The program addresses a critical global demand for evidence-based data while challenging misinformation to ensure women experience decades of healthy living rather than the current decade of poor health.
- Milken Institute31 min
Opening Remarks | Future of Health Summit 2024
The Milken Institute Future of Health Summit 2024 convenes over 200 global leaders across philanthropic, scientific, and governmental sectors to address critical health challenges like aging populations, rising chronic disease rates, and systemic access barriers. Featuring the theme "Partnering for Better Health," the event focuses on collaborative solutions to bridge the gap between massive healthcare investments and poor national outcomes, including a strategic shift from treatment to prevention. Discussions will examine how AI, biomedical innovation, and inclusive clinical trials can accelerate medical development while ensuring equitable access to care for diverse demographics.
- Milken Institute33 min
Global Health: Connectiveness for Better Outcomes | Asia Summit 2024
Esther Krofah, Mina Hamoodi, Ganen Sarvananthan, Tom Snow
Tom Snow's Snow Research Foundation, Lina Al Jaber's Mubadala, and Ganon Savaranthan's TPG Capital Asia outlined distinct strategies to accelerate healthcare innovation across the region through a combined focus on early-stage equity funding, sovereign wealth market expansion, and value-based service delivery. These leaders emphasized a shift from traditional grant models toward partnership-driven approaches that leverage local expertise to address Asia's unique demographic challenges, including rapid aging and the need for scalable clinical trials. By integrating advanced technologies like AI and electronic medical records with targeted investments in immunology, women's health, and infrastructure, the panelists aim to bridge the critical gap between academic discovery and commercial bedside application within one to two years.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Prevention and Innovation for a Healthier Tomorrow | Global Conference 2024
Esther Krofah, Robert Bradway, David Feinberg, Karen Knudsen, Meena Seshamani
Representatives from CMS, the American Cancer Society, Oracle Health, and Amgen convened to address the U.S. healthcare system's inefficiencies, noting that while the sector consumes 20% of GDP, chronic disease prevalence and administrative friction continue to drive costs while outcomes remain misaligned. Key strategies outlined include shifting Medicare toward value-based care with a $2,000 prescription cap, leveraging AI tools like the Oracle Digital Clinical Assistant to reduce physician administrative burdens, and advocating for federal reimbursement of multi-cancer early detection to improve survival rates. The panelists reached a consensus that the current fragmented structure is impoding and requires fundamental structural reforms rather than incremental solutions to successfully integrate prevention, innovation, and data interoperability.
- Milken Institute1h 16m
Closing Gaps in Health and Health Care | Future of Health Summit 2023
Esther Krofah, AmirAli Talasaz, Susan Barlow, Meg Tirrell, Jaewon Ryu, Ashwin Vasan, Hubertus von Baumbach, Angela F. Williams, Ray Broughan, Bob Cramer, Diane Tai
The 2023 Milken Institute Future of Health Summit convened sector leaders to address the U.S. life expectancy decline and widening inequities despite record spending of over $4.1 trillion annually. Key initiatives announced include the Aging Innovation Collaborative with $3 million in seed funding, New York City's "Healthy NYC" strategy targeting premature death, and a renewed focus on shifting from fee-for-service models to preventive care through public-private partnerships. Experts emphasized that closing the gap requires an industrial health policy to align regulatory updates, leverage AI for early detection, and rebuild community trust through equitable data sharing and resource integration.
- Milken Institute56 min
Superbugs: Avoiding an Existential Threat to Humanity
Esther Krofah, Valeria Bortolaia, Ron Daniels, Peter Jackson, Peter Piot, Lance Price, Sneha Kemka
This analysis details the critical global escalation of antimicrobial resistance, which currently causes 700,000 annual deaths and threatens to reach 10 million by 2050 without urgent intervention. The event highlights a pharmaceutical market failure where major drug withdrawals have shifted innovation to undercapitalized SMEs, necessitating new economic incentives like the UK's pilot pull mechanism to fund R&D. Strategic solutions prioritize infection control, agricultural bans on growth promoters, and precision diagnostics to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and clinical application.