Some of the most innovative solutions to America's healthcare challenges aren't being developed in the world's wealthiest hospitals—they're emerging from communities with the fewest resources.
What can American healthcare learn from global healthcare? In our latest episode, Dr. Mark Stoltenberg, Harvard Medical School professor and Massachusetts General Hospital physician, joins Chris Comeaux to explore global healthcare, palliative care, hospice leadership, healthcare innovation, and the future of serious illness care in America.
Healthcare leaders often assume innovation requires more money, more technology, or more specialists. Dr. Stoltenberg argues the opposite. Drawing from his work leading global palliative care programs throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and other underserved regions, he shares how resource-limited healthcare systems are pioneering solutions that can improve American healthcare, strengthen the healthcare workforce, and restore compassionate, person-centered care.
✔ What America can learn from global healthcare systems
✔ Why palliative care is rooted in social justice
✔ How healthcare workforce shortages can be addressed creatively
✔ Why Project ECHO is transforming healthcare education
✔ How community-based care improves patient outcomes
✔ Why family and spirituality remain essential to serious illness care
✔ How great organizations preserve their mission while scaling innovation
Together, Chris and Dr. Stoltenberg discuss workforce shortages, Project ECHO, community-based care, volunteerism, family-centered decision-making, healthcare leadership, and why hospice and palliative care must preserve their founding values while continuing to innovate. Through moving patient stories—including a remarkable experience in Belize—they reveal why dignity, compassion, community, and purpose remain healthcare's greatest innovations.
If you're a healthcare executive, hospice leader, physician, nonprofit executive, nurse, or business leader, this episode offers practical strategies for improving leadership, building stronger organizations, and delivering more compassionate care.
Special Guest:
Attending Physician in the Division of Palliative Care and
Geriatric Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital
and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
Contact
Biography
Global Palliative Care Program
MGH Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine Grand Rounds (video)
Our Host
MLAS, CPA
President / CEO of Teleios