PBS NewsHour and the Aspen Institute Partner to Explore Today's Most Pressing Health Challenges

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2017  The PBS NewsHour and the Health, Medicine and Society Program of the Aspen Institute will partner to co-produce a series of broadcast and digital stories exploring today's most pressing health issues.  The segments will air on NewsHour's broadcast and publish to www.pbs.org/newshour and will draw upon some of the content and discussion from the Institute's Spotlight Health program, the three-day opening segment of the annual Aspen Ideas Festival.  Spotlight Health brings together scientists and visionaries, storytellers and artists, policymakers and activists, public servants and entrepreneurs from around the globe to talk about big ideas in health, health care and medicine. 

Together, PBS NewsHour and the Aspen Institute share a focus on intellectual inquiry and a commitment to uncovering and examining solutions to the world's most critical problems.  Now in its fourth year, Spotlight Health 2017 (June 22-25) will again convene some 1000 attendees in Aspen, Colorado on the Aspen Institute campus to explore today's great challenges and bold innovations in health.  This year's program will divide its sessions into four tracks:  The Brain; "Moonshots"; Caregiving, and Intersections (the relationship between health and other fields such as race, economics, international trade, and the law).  For each track, icons in their field will join with next-generation up-and-comers on the dais and in the audience to learn about cutting edge breakthroughs, novel approaches, and creative solutions for making progress. 

"The Institute's Health, Medicine and Society program is most fortunate to be partnering with PBS NewsHour––the gold standard in broadcast news––on vital issues concerning health and health policy," said Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson. He added: "We hope and expect the important stories to be produced will have great reach and serve the interests of people who need it the most."

“We are delighted to partner with the Aspen Institute on topics that touch the lives of all Americans and people throughout the world,” said Sara Just, PBS NewsHour executive producer and WETA SVP. “The Aspen Institute's Health, Medicine and Society program is renowned for illuminating the most pressing health-related issues and innovations. We look forward to bringing the NewsHour's journalism to bear on these critical concerns and presenting these cutting-edge health stories to our growing broadcast and digital audiences.”

About the Health, Medicine and Society Program at the Aspen Institute

The Health, Medicine and Society (HMS) Program, established in 2005, gathers academic, government and industry leaders to explore health, health care, medicine and health policy and consider their impact on individuals, families and communities across the US.  HMS is the principal domestic health initiative at the Aspen Institute, one of the world's premier gathering places for leaders to come together to address critical issues of our times.  Rigorously non-partisan, HMS convenes multi-disciplinary forums that allow decision makers to exchange knowledge and insights, and forge collaborative networks that are essential to building better health for all. 

More information about HMS is available: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/health-medicine-and-society-program/  or contact Ruth Katz at [email protected] or 202-736-5827. 

More information about the Aspen Institute is available at: https://www.aspeninstitute.org or contact Douglas Farrar at [email protected] or 202-736-3848.

For more information on Spotlight Health visit: https://www.aspenideas.org/spotlighthealth

About the PBS NewsHour

PBS NewsHour is seen by over four million weekly viewers and is also available online, via public radio in select markets, and via podcast. PBS NewsHour is a production of NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, D.C., in association with WNET in New York. Major funding for PBS NewsHour is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and public television viewers. Major corporate funding is provided by BNSF and XQ Institute, with additional support from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Lemelson Foundation, National Science Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Ford Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Friends of the NewsHour and others. More information on PBS NewsHour is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. On social media, visit NewsHour on Facebook or follow @NewsHour on Twitter.

SOURCE The Aspen Institute