We Can Do Better 2015 Conference

Connecting the Dots for a Healthier Oregon

Save the Date

Join us October 1, 2015 to Learn, Connect and Act at our 7th Annual We Can Do Better Conference at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, OR.

This year we will be Connecting the Dots for a Healthier Oregon.

We Can Do Better is not your typical non-profit, and each year we host a not-so-typical conference as illustrated by this comment.

Early-bird registration discount through September 15th!

What to expect

[download_link link=”https://www.wecandobetter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/WCDB_Conference_agenda-at-a-glance.pdf” variation=”red” target=”blank”]Download the Agenda (PDF)[/download_link]

Winston Wong, MD, Medical Director, Community Benefit for Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest non-profit health care provider, will join us as a keynote speaker this year. Dr. Wong is responsible for developing partnerships with communities and organizations in advancing population management with a particular emphasis in addressing health disparities and improving health care access for vulnerable populations.

[clearboth]

 

Also joining us will be Deborah Howe, PhD, FAICP, Interim President of Oregon College of Oriental Medicine.

As an urban planner, her professional and scholarly work focuses on creating healthy communities with an emphasis on planning for an aging society and creating built environments that allow for active, healthy living.

[clearboth]

 

Lawrence D. Frank, PhD, AICP, CIP, ASLA is a Professor in Sustainable Transportation and Public Health at the University of British Columbia and President of Urban Design for Health, Inc. He specializes in the interaction between land use, travel behavior, air quality; and in the health, energy use, and climate change impacts of urban form policies. Dr. Frank works directly with local, regional, provincial or state, and federal agencies to help translate results from leading edge research into practice based tools that provide direct feedback on the health and environmental impacts of alternative transportation and land development proposals.[clearboth]

Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward is a family physician at OHSU where she works to provide primary care to both children and adults. She is a past President of the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians and currently serves as the Director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Breast Health Education Program. In addition, Senator Steiner Hayward has a Certificate in Bioethics and plans conferences through the OHSU Center for Ethics. As a doctor, Senator Steiner Hayward is passionate about improving our health care system by making high-quality primary care more accessible and more affordable for everyone.

In addition to the great keynote speakers, we have something for everybody this year to Learn, Connect and Act. We have a great line up of expert panelists to help you learn, connect with others and then take action. Whether you are involved in healthcare or Public Health – or are a patient, caregiver, concerned citizen, or policy maker – we hope to see you on October 1st.

See where you fit in to create a healthier Oregon. Some of the dots we will be connecting:

• How to create Health Equity with Intentionality. (Dr. Winston Wong, Kaiser Permanente)
• Where in your community can health be addressed?  Barbers as Community Health Advocates (North by Northeast Health Center Cuts and Checks program)
• How to Access Complementary Medicine? (Dr. Deborah Howe, OCOM)
• How does transportation planning impact health outcomes? (TriMet is sponsoring Dr. Larry Frank, University of British Columbia, Vancouver)
• OpenNotes: How medical transparency improves patient engagement (Dr. John Santa and others)
• What’s next for the ACA in Oregon? (Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, MD, and Dr. Sam Metz, HCAO)
• Navigating End of Life Conversations with the Conversation Project starter kit

Our annual conference delivers timely and pertinent information while listening to participants and incorporating their perspectives into our next steps. In order to achieve fundamental change we need people from across the spectrum to engage and provide input in this important process.

See what happened at our 2014 conference here.
[pullquote4 align=”right” cite=”2013 conference participant”]”I usually leave this sort of thing feeling pretty depressed about the hopelessness of it all. On the drive home from this conference, I was full of ideas of things that I could do. That sounds kind of trite when I say it, but I am looking at some things in a whole new way. Now all I need is to take that from thought into action…” — 2013 conference participant[/pullquote4]

Who typically attends?

Anyone with an interest in transforming healthcare including: health policy leaders from government, the private sector and medicine, business leaders, and community members who want to learn about policy options, and how they can weigh-in and influence decisions.

If your organization is interested in sponsorship opportunity, please contact Amy Fellows, (503) 609-0304. To stay updated as conference details emerge, please subscribe to our newsletter using the form on this page.

[download_link link=”https://www.wecandobetter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-WCDB-Conference-Sponsor-Packet.pdf” variation=”red” target=”blank”]2015 Sponsorship Packet (PDF)[/download_link]

We offer a limited number of scholarship registrations. Help make those possible by supporting our scholarship fund.