This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, executive director of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment and president of the American Medical Association.
The endowment is the state’s largest health improvement philanthropy, Ehrenfeld explains, and was created by MCW with a financial donation made by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin.
The school uses the endowment funds to invest in promising biomedical research, supporting community health initiatives and driving growth in Wisconsin’s health workforce. Since 2004, it has donated more than $337 million to support more than 600 projects, Ehrenfeld noted.
“We’ve reached almost every corner of Wisconsin,” he said. “Direct funding has been provided to organizations in 63 of our 72 counties here in Wisconsin, and of course we’ve funded statewide work as well.”
He shares details on some specific projects getting support from AHW, highlighting the impact these efforts are having on Wisconsin residents, including tribal communities. And he touts the endowment’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting its role in producing personal protective equipment and early research on therapeutics.
“So we’ve been able to respond to critical emergencies as well as support public health infrastructure through the fund over the last 20 years,” he said.
Ehrenfeld also shares his perspective on emerging trends in health care as the third Wisconsin doctor to lead the American Medical Association.
“We’ve got a lot of backseat drivers in health care — it used to be just insurance companies that often told us what we could and couldn’t do, denying necessary treatment for patients — now, unfortunately we have legislative restrictions on a lot of the care we can provide nationally,” he said.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
