“You will never look at healthcare the same way again.”

–Patrick J. Kennedy, Former Congressman,
Foreword to Trusted Healers

Listen to the Interview via Talkshoe

Dr. Paul Grundy, With Key Lessons For Healthcare Around the World
“Dr. Paul Grundy’s crusade to save healthcare is a story that
has never been fully told,” says former eight-term
congressman Patrick Kennedy. “Trusted Healers does so by
probing the transformation of healthcare delivery and the
aspiration for better care around the globe.
“Told through the voices of exceptional leaders and the
crusade of one man’s dream, we learn that better health, and
better healthcare is in our grasp.
“Author Dan Pelino takes us on a journey to better
understand leadership, societal change, and our shared
healthcare future.”
Trusted Healers recognizes that the most important
healthcare decision you can make is at your fingertips. This
one powerful idea could well be the panacea for the
healthcare crises in many nations.
As the fate of healthcare is debated in the United States and
abroad, discussions over accessibility, and affordability,
dominate. But the author of a breakthrough book shows
what is really needed is a trusted healer in a medical home
for everyone, for life. The results will yield better care at lower costs and become the gold standard for all
of us.
Meet Dan Pelino, the author of Trusted Healers: Dr. Paul Grundy and the Global Healthcare Crusade
(September 15, 2019, Koehler Books, $19.95; Trade Paperback; 298 pages; ISBN: 978-1-63393-684-3),
who tirelessly followed Dr. Paul Grundy around the globe for a year, observing a revolution in healthcare
before his very eyes.
Dr. Grundy is heavily featured in Pelino’s book, to bring attention to the work of the man known as the
Godfather of the Primary Care Medical Home Movement. Dr. Grundy served four American presidents
and was decorated with numerous awards for his work that extends back to the AIDS epidemic. Until last
year, he served for nearly two decades as the chief medical officer and global director of IBM’s
healthcare transformation. He’s also the founding president of the patient-centered primary case
collaborative.
Kennedy, a former Congressman of 16 years, says Trusted Healers “helps provide the narrative to help
achieve healthcare reform.” Kennedy should know. The Rhode Island Democrat, who founded The

Kennedy Forum five years ago, has led a crusade against the health insurance industry’s discrimination in
mental health and addiction coverage.
Trusted Healers details the decade-long movement by Dr. Grundy to transform all healthcare on a
national and global scale.
“He very likely has traveled more air miles than any physician in history,” estimates Pelino of Dr.
Grundy, who was once nicknamed by Nelson Mandela as ‘a good troublemaker.’
“He returns again and again to monitor programs and serve as an inspiration for his colleagues in dozens
of nations,” adds Pelino.
Indeed, this is a story that has not yet been told. In addition to learning about Dr. Grundy, now leading
global healthcare transformation for Innovaccer, Inc., which provides breakthrough technologies for
better healthcare, we also see interviews with an international cadre of innovative leaders and visionaries
in healthcare today, including:
 Patrick J. Kennedy, who wrote the Foreword for Trusted Healers.
 Dr. Michael Roizen, Dr. Oz Show co-creator, best-selling author, and chief wellness officer at
The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute.
 United Kingdom Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt, previously Secretary of Health and Social
Care for six years.
 Glenn D. Steele, MD, Ph.D, CEO (Ret.) of Geisinger Health System, named one of the 50 most
powerful physician executives in healthcare.
 Professor James Kingsland, OBE, one of the top physician leaders in the United Kingdom,
Great Britains long standing BBC Radio doctor.
 Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH, clinical transformation officer for Rubicon MD, improving
access to care for underserved patients.
 Nick Donofrio, executive vice-president (Ret.) of Innovation and Technology at IBM, who led
the world in technology innovations for forty years, one of the world’s top corporate leaders.
Dan Pelino, who led the healthcare and life sciences team with Dr. Grundy at IBM, says Dr. Grundy has
visited 50 cities in 5 continents since 2018 to champion primary care, from Nebraska and New York to
Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.
Pelino’s book covers several key areas:
 The type of leadership needed to lead healthcare reform.
 The level of societal change that is needed to embrace a healthcare revolution.
 The quality of healthcare one requires and deserves – while the patient acts responsibly as well.
 The vital importance of access to healthcare.
 The power of wellness and healthy living.
 The personal empowerment that can positively impact your self esteem, help you focus on your
own personal produ tivity and enhance your contributo to your family reindsand communityyour
contribution to your family community and society that can change the quality and productivity
of your life.

He answers these pressing questions:
 What is a trusted healer and medical home – and does everyone need both?
 What type of leadership is needed to propel a healthcare revolution?
 Which nations should serve as our healthcare model?
 What to look for in a primary care doctor and which questions should you ask before developing
a long-term relationship with one?
 How can people take control of their health with diet, exercise and the avoidance of addictive
substances?
 Could a child born today hope to live to be at least 110 years old?
“Personalized, precision medicine and care is what’s needed to heal our ineffective system,” says Pelino.
Pelino and co-author Bud Ramey visited, along with Dr. Grundy, a slew of healthcare leaders and
innovators throughout the developed world. These Trusted Voices run clinics, government programs, and
non-profit health-delivery systems that have re-established the bond between patient and doctor. Their
stories leave us with the inevitable conclusion that we must champion everyone to have access to a
personalized, primary care approach, where care is not determined by hospitals, governments, or
insurance companies.
Who should have access to healthcare, what that healthcare should look like, and how you can assure
your family has the best healthcare is what Trusted Healers is all about.
Dr. Grundy has been relentlessly leading the movement that now puts the U.S. at the precipice of a
tipping point. Over 48% of all U.S. primary care doctors are now practicing in a medical home
environment.
“If America fails to create something strong in the long term, we will always see a short-term fix
approach to things,” says Pelino. “We need a transformation – not patchwork attempts to stop the
bleeding.”
Pelino points to the journey we are on in America where we now clearly see a growing national sentiment
of moving forward with access to care for all citizens, for both primary care and mental health needs. He
sees Kennedy’s campaign taking hold to assure that diseases of the brain are treated at parity. He views
recent developments to strengthen primary care, and access to primary care as pivotal.
Recently, he notes, all over the world, societies are making strides in access and quality of care. He also
notes that the pace of change of healthcare in a society is driven by local customs and national culture.
“We have entered the Age of Intelligence in healthcare,” asserts Pelino, “and all people should have
access to the dramatic improvements being made in care.”
For example, Pelino points out that in England, the solution to the financial struggle of the universal
healthcare system is becoming the nationwide adoption of the medical home model for robust primary
care. He also puts a spotlight to various pilot programs and large-scale studies around the world that
show successful outcomes – reduced costs while providing healthier results for patients in healthcare
delivery systems that do not deny care to anyone.
Pelino highlights how duplication and waste — drivers of high healthcare costs – can be greatly eliminated
or reduced. He puts a spotlight on evidence-based care, which results in dramatic decreases in costs while

the quality of care greatly increases. He also uncovers pilot programs that lead to a reduction in ER usage
and hospital re-admission rates.
The U.S. spends well over $10,000 per person on healthcare – twice the average of wealthy nations like
Germany, Canada, France, Australia, Japan and the U.K. – but the accessibility to healthcare is greater in
each of those countries.
The model put forth by Dr. Grundy and Pelino must become the heartbeat of medicine.
“The medical home model of care will solve a crisis in cost, quality, and physician morale,” concludes
Pelino, “all over the world.”
“Fast Paced. Brilliant storytelling. A powerful message for cultures worldwide.” – Professor
James Kingsland, OBE, One of the top physician leaders in the United Kingdom, Great
Britain’s longest standing BBC radio doctor
“Through compelling stories you’ll relish, we’re forced to conclude what Dr. Grundy has
said for years – for illness care to be available to everyone, and affordable for society
requires a value-based system promoting health through the human touch of the primary
care medical home.” – Mike Roizen, MD, Four No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. Co-Creator
of the Dr. Oz Show, Founding Chief Wellness Officer of the Cleveland Clinic
“Trusted Healers help us understand the power of a familiar physician and the hope this
could bring to every citizen in America.” – Douglas E. Henley, MD, FAAFP, CEO,
American Academy of Family Physicians
“Dan shows us healthcare as we have never seen it before. Trusted Healers is a page turner
and a benchmark book for those who care about their healthcare future!” – Glenn D.
Steele, MD, PhD, CEO Geisinger Healthcare (Ret.), One of America’s top healthcare reformers
“Trusted Healers champions personal healthcare – a critical direction around the world.”
–Marion Ball Ed.D., FAAN, FACMI, FCHME, FHMSS, FMLA, FAHIMA, FIANSI,
Senior Advisor, IBM Research Division, Healthcare Visionary, Professor Emerita John
HopkinsSchool of Nursing, and Affiliate Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
“Trusted Healers is a must read for everyone who cares about their own well-being and that
of their families, coworkers, and community members.” – David Folk, Co-Founder and CEO
NEXT Integrative Minds Life Sciences, Inc.
“Trusted Healers demonstrates that social injustice and social inequities invariably impact
health and healthcare. First, we have got to accept and believe that. Then we can do
something about it.” – Nwando Olayiwola, MD, Chief Clinical Transformation Officer
Rubicon MD
Contact Information: Media Connect
Brian Feinblum 212-583-2718 Brian.Feinblum@finnpartners.com
Jacquelyn Mahalick 212-715-1599 Jacquelyn.Mahalick@finnpartners.com

Dan Pelino
Biography

Dan Pelino is an innovator, thought
leader and author. He is the co-founder
of Everyone Matters, Inc., a social
impact enterprise dedicated to ensuring
that everyone has the right to dignity
and respect, to be who they are without
being shamed or demeaned, and to
thrive within their own unique
individuality.
He worked for IBM for 36 years,
leading its Global Healthcare and Life
Sciences Business for 10 years. He
concluded his career with IBM as the
General Manager of the global
Government, Healthcare, Education,
and Life Sciences business.
Pelino is the co-author of Trusted
Healers: Dr. Paul Grundy And The
Global Healthcare Crusade
(September 2019).
He is a regular contributor to the
discussion on healthcare, citizen based services and Smarter Cities having appeared on CNN,
Bloomberg, the BBC and other media outlets.
Pelino serves as a moderator and host to the current healthcare debate and is an adjunct professor
lecturing on Leadership at his alma mater Western Kentucky University. He also guest lectures
at other colleges and universities. He serves on numerous private and public boards.
He resides in Northern Virginia. For more information see: www.everyonemattersonline.com
About Co-Author Bud Ramey
Trusted Healers co-author, Bud Ramey, has written six books, including The Familiar Physician
(2014) with Dr. Peter Anderson. Five of his titles have been about America’s culture. A 1971
Virginia Military Institute graduate, Bud has served in top healthcare public affairs positions for
forty years, winning over two dozen awards for excellence in communications (two PRSA Silver
Anvil Awards) and for his contributions to regional humanitarian and community efforts. He
resides in Coastal Virginia.

Dan Pelino
Q&A
Trusted Healers

1. Trusted Healers shows what the state of healthcare is in the world today. You believe it can
and should be a whole lot better. Why? Throughout the world, in developing nations, societies
are making strides in healthcare access and the quality of care for all citizens. We have entered
the “Age of Healthcare Intelligence” and the dramatic changes this will create in the coming
years should be available for all people. We know in America that our healthcare system is
challenged. But it is a cultural decision holding us back. We have all the tools we need to solve
the problems that we face and as we look at the process for societal change, we see a path to
better care for all. Trusted Healers is a book of hope, aspiration, and encouragement.
2. Why do you feel that once people read your book they will never look at healthcare the
same way? Trusted Healers offers a view of healthcare from the inside. We embark upon a
journey with a front row seat to societal change, to new principles of cultural leadership
and to a new threshold in healthcare.
When you read Trusted Healers, you will go on a journey of discovery to view healthcare from
the inside. You will meet trusted healers, healthcare leaders in the US and abroad who are
guiding change addressing the difficult questions and providing an aspiration to better care and
quality of life.
There are secrets along this journey. Secrets of how cultures make change happen. You will
learn that evidence-based medicine is better healthcare and that it should be offered in your
community. You will learn about new findings in access, wellness, and empowerment. There are
secrets of effective inspired leadership. You will learn about the Trusted Healers of the world.
And you will realize there is one major decision you need to make right now that will impact
your entire life.
3. How do other nations compare to the US when it comes to delivering quality, accessible
healthcare. One of our take-away observations about healthcare in other developed nations
is that the most satisfied and content citizens reside in nations that have accepted the belief
that Everyone Matters. Every other developed nation in the world has structured healthcare to
not leave anyone out. Include everyone. That’s where they begin their planning. Their costs are
much less than the cost structure of healthcare systems in the US. And their citizens are happier
not only with their healthcare, but happier people. Rightfully so, many contend that the
population of these countries are much smaller than the US (330 million).

4. What should we import or export when it comes to healthcare? First, we should notice that
we are the only nation in the world that deliberately leaves millions of citizens out of healthcare.
That is a bridge we must cross before we can improve other aspects of care. Usually, this kind of
societal flaw comes from a widespread belief that there is not enough to go around. That’s a false
belief. Look around. Come with us on a journey and we will show you a path – illuminated by
evidence and leadership driving the societal change to improve healthcare and healthy living. We
should also drive parity of mental and physical health allowing all people a path of access,
wellness and empowerment.
5. What are some of the changes you would like to see in the delivery and access to American
healthcare? Everyone should have a Trusted Healer and a medical home to guide them through
life, accessible any time needed. Let’s ask the question, what happens if we provide robust
primary care to everyone? The entire continuum of care we have created in America should be
available to everyone. Studies have shown how this will actually cost less than providing the
episodic care of over-reliance on hospitals, urgent care centers, and Emergency Departments for
routine matters. Focus on the patient team-care models that help us all get in front of disease and
emergency visits and address mental and behavioral health for less money seem to be the
question worth pursuing.
6. Why do you believe reducing the age to Medicare to 55 years makes sense – but not have
Medicare for all? We believe transformation guided by the creation of robust primary care,
available to everyone, is a solid starting point.
Dr. Ted Epperly, in a interview in Trusted Healers, makes a great point. He advocates dropping
the eligibility for Medicare to age 50 because the 15 years prior to age 65 are when people
usually encounter chronic disease and they face grave danger if they try to wait until they are
better insured with Medicare. Or worse, they forego being treated. Our culture needs to make
some core decisions about healthcare. “Medicare for All” is one option under scrutiny.
On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. (The Social
Security Amendments of 1965, Pub.L. 89–97, 79 Stat. 286, enacted July 30, 1965, was
legislation in the United States whose most important provisions resulted in creation of two
programs: Medicare and Medicaid.
Trusted Healers notes that societal change can take decades, 40 years on average, for a cultural
breakthrough to reach a point where it becomes “what we do” and we decide to continue to build
upon it, sustaining the rhythm of change. So now, after these decades of making Medicare and
Medicaid a part of our societal structure, we are beginning to accept this system as worthy, and
we are weighing options for building upon the current system as opposed to rip and replace.
7. Your book highlights the accomplishments of a number of leaders in healthcare,
particularly Dr. Paul Grundy. Can you tell us of his accomplishments and what he is
leading the way for? No one physician throughout this century has done more to promote
patient-centered healthcare than Dr. Paul Grundy. I had the honor of serving with Dr. Grundy at
IBM as we tackled the crisis in healthcare around the world. Paul is a brilliant doctor and he spent
his life as a diplomat, a doctor, son of missionaries in Sierra Leone, with Nelson Mandela in
South Africa fighting HIV/AIDS, and with IBM as Director of Global Healthcare

Transformation. Trusted Healers is his mantra and he has devoted his life to helping nations
reorganize their primary care into the medical home, making possible a Trusted Healer for all
citizens. He is perhaps the most decorated physician and certainly one of the most fascinating
leaders I have ever met. His story is worth sharing, reading, and admiring.
8. You value and champion what you call a “trusted healer,” a caregiver who invests time in
getting to know you and helps you make good healthcare decisions as you go through life.
So what would that look like? When we build our healthcare around this bedrock, we all will be
empowered rather than subjugated. The rails for this journey of healthcare liberation are already
laid. We have some predictions in Trusted Healers. We will take you on a tour of the continuum
of care where the medical system is a tool of the individual; you one day will have the entire
continuum of care under your influence and have guidance available at the time of need, all in
collaboration with your Trusted Healer.
For me, the concept of personal healthcare seemed so simple on its face, but it is so antithetical
to how modern medicine has evolved. Paul Grundy’s inspiration is very much an approach with
a modern world application of what we know impacts the quality of life.
Paul’s aspiration, his vision, calls for every citizen to have a medical home, a delivery model that
ensures that we receive the necessary care when and where we need it, in a manner we can
understand, by a Trusted Healer and care team that invests the time in getting to know us,
standing by us over the years—physically, virtually, emotionally, and spiritually.
When we build our healthcare around this bedrock, we all will be empowered rather than
subjugated. The rails for this journey of healthcare liberation are already laid.
9. Former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, in the book’s foreword, demands our nation
consciously change the way it cares for mental health issues, the opioid crisis, and the
stigma we attach to disease of the brain. What do you propose be done in these areas?
Well, like every other form of healthcare, we should begin by agreeing to make care available to
all citizens. That is not hard to do. Then, within that wonderful inclusive idea, we make sure that
mental health care is offered exactly like other aspects of care. Individually, we stop stigmatizing
mental health care and diseases of the brain. Just stop it. The brain is an organ like the heart or
the lungs and when things go wrong we should not shun talking about it.
10. You note, in your interviews for the book with Michael Roizen, MD, an award-winning
author, chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic, and co-creator of the Dr. Oz Show
television program, that a key part to healthcare and wellness comes with prevention and
patient responsibility. What can be done to help people help themselves? A culture needs
powerful leaders to listen and who fall in love with the questions, making complex issues
understandable. Dr. Roizen is our champion for that.
The brilliance of Dr. Roizen is that he understands that there needs to be an incentive to change
behavior that is coupled with a wellness focus. He created a system that offers thousands of
dollars in discounts for healthcare plans to the employees of the Cleveland Clinic. The rewards
are deeper than just benefiting from exercising, proper diet, and caring for your health. The

results of combining incentives and wellness are meaningful. Dr. Roizen has very high
participation in wellness programs when the incentives are added to the equation.
A colleague, David Folk, founder of NEXT Integrative Life Sciences is deeply involved in this
very subject and watch for major developments in the field of personal responsibility for your
own well-being. The secret to changing a culture is revealed in Trusted Healers. All change is
local. A culture will change at its own pace. A culture needs powerful leaders to listen and who
fall in love with the questions, making complex issues understandable. Dr. Roizen is our
champion for that.
And Dr. Roizen has revealed another secret. You can help millions of people if you have a
platform from which to cheer them on. Thus, The Dr. Oz Show and fifteen books translated into
three dozen languages around the world. He is a world leader in wellness. Trusted Healers shows
what the state of healthcare is in the world today. We believe it can and should be a whole lot
better.
11. You advocate for the creation of a medical home. What exactly is that and why is it vital to
healthcare? The relationship with your healer is intimate. Your healer serves your interests – not
an insurance company or hospital. Your doctor’s team success is yours as well. It can be easily
proven that better medical decisions result from such a powerful relationship. Under Paul’s
vision, Your Trusted Healer is part of a team in a 21 st century model of primary care called the
medical home. The medical home is formed as a clinical team and they know all about you. Your
medical home is available when you need it. Your medical home team helps you make good
medical decisions and creates a medical partnership based on your needs and how you want to
lead your life. Your medical home addresses the full spectrum of healthcare with you – primary
care, mental health, and prevention.
12. What are the different fundamental models of healthcare delivery displayed in the US – and
so any work best? Healthcare networks that embrace the medical home have created the next
generation of excellence in healthcare. They have embraced the Trusted Healer. But we still
grapple with the volume-based payment model, which we are dismantling brick by brick as we
speak. If you are under sixty-five in the United States, you have the Bismarck model [employer
sponsored]. If you are employed, you have the Douglas model once you turn sixty-five, as
predominate insurance provider [Medicare]. If you are one of the ten million in the Veterans
Administration, you have the Beverage model, where the government owns the hospitals
[England, Ireland]. If you are poor, or under-insured, you become Medicaid or self-pay,
frequently the only form of healthcare available in third world countries. No country in the world
has been successful in managing such a healthcare system, including America.
13. Why is Denmark so far ahead of the world in primary care development? Because Everyone
Matters in that nation. The Danes and other Scandinavian nations, set out to design a healthcare
system that embodies the belief that Everyone Matters. That is a tenant of their culture. They
could never deliberately deny healthcare to anyone, for any reason.
14. Why do citizens in Great Britain favor their healthcare system so much stronger than
others? This takes us back to the end of World War II. The shattered but victorious nation rebuilt

their infrastructure through government channels because that’s really the only way they could do
it, and they built it around the GPs. The Brits placed their GP’s or General Practitioners as the
most beloved part of their culture. The NHS was then founded on this basis and it has not
changed. They love their GPs. Brits, for the most part, love their universal healthcare, though the
nation is now embracing the medical home to solve the problems threatening their GPs.
15. In your book you identify the breakthroughs in quality and healthcare cost at Geisinger
Health System. When will these evidence-based practices be adopted in our communities? A
key finding of our study of societal change around the world is that all cultural change is local.
All healthcare is basically, local. In America, there are many different kinds of healthcare
communities with diverse governance, leadership and economics. The revolution in evidence-
based medicine is marching across the country. Healthcare is much better, safer and less
expensive using these carefully studied protocols.
Like Dr. Paul Grundy championing the medical home around the world, Geisinger and Dr. Steele
simply say, “Here is a better way. Better patient outcomes. Higher quality. Lower costs. Let us
know when you are ready.” It’s a question every healthcare consumer should be asking
healthcare leaders in their community: Not “if” but “when” will you be using evidence-based
medicine such as the ProvenCare protocols?

Paul Grundy, MD, MPH, FACOEM, FACPM
Chief Transformation Officer, Innovaccer
Biography

Dr. Paul Grundy, known as the Godfather of the
Primary Care Medical Home, has spent four
decades focused on population health built on a
platform of a healing relationship of trust in
primary care. He served four American
presidents and is the subject of a new book:
Trusted Healers: Dr. Paul Grundy And The
Global Healthcare Crusade (September 2019).
Dr. Grundy spent 17 years as an executive at IBM
where he was Chief Medical Officer and Global
Director, Healthcare Transformation, IBM HCLS
Industry, and a member of the IBM Industry
Academy. He retired from IBM in 2018.
He is the winner of the Barbara Starfield Patient
Centered Primary Care, the NCQA Quality, and
the Sappington, The Second Order of the Panda
from the Governor of Sichuan – awards for his
work in primary care transformation.
He is a healthcare ambassador for Denmark, he is one of only seven given the Honorary Life
Member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Dr. Grundy is the only American
awarded an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the Irish National Association of General
Practice and the National Association of Primary Care in the United Kingdom.
Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco Department of Family and
Community Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Family and
Community Medicine, and the University of Utah Department of Family and Preventive
Medicine.
A member of National Academy of Science’s National Academy of Medicine and a member of
its leadership forum, he served as the medical director for Adventist Health Care, building and
staffing new clinics for corporate international business people in China, Burma, Cambodia, and
Vietnam. His work took him to Asia, Europe, and Africa.
He was also the director of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
(ACGME) board, which accredits residency training in both the USA and Singapore.

Dr. Grundy is the founding president of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative. Dr.
Grundy served in the Carter, Reagan, Bush 1 and Clinton administrations, and is a retired senior
diplomat with the rank of Minister Consular U.S. State Department. He served In Singapore for
three years as a medical Director at International SOS. He earned numerous awards for his
illustrious career with the State Department and Department of Defense, including:

 1993 Department of State Superior Honor Award for handling the crisis surrounding the two
attempted coups in Russia.
 1992 Department of State Superior Honor Award for work done in opening up all the new
embassies after the fall of the Soviet Union.
 1991 Department of State Superior Honor Award for work on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.
 1987-93 Four Department of State Meritorious Service awards for outstanding performance in the
Middle East and Africa.
 1985 Department of Defense Superior Service Award for outstanding service addressing
HIV/AIDS.
He spent much of his youth in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where his parents worked. He
overcame dyslexia and went to medical school at the University of California San Francisco, did
his residency training in preventive medicine and public health and his post-doctorate
fellowship in international occupational medicine at Johns Hopkins.
In 1988, he urged the Centers for Disease control to work on its earliest US-led campaign in
South Africa to halt the HIV-AIDS pandemic in Africa.
Dr. Grundy is the co-author of Lost and Found: A Consumer's Guide to Healthcare and
Provider-Led Population Health Management: Key Healthcare Strategies in the Cognitive Era.
He resides in New York. For more information, please see: www.everyonemattersonline.com

Dr. Paul Grundy
Q&A

Featured Subject in Trusted Healers

1. You are known as the Godfather of the primary care medical home. What have you
discovered in your four decades focused on health, including 17 years as IBM’s innovative
Chief Medical Officer and Global Director of Healthcare Transformation? Over the past
twenty years, employers have tried several ways to climb out of the abyss lying between the rock
and the hard place. Managed care, wellness and health promotion, free preventive care, value-
based tiered networks, nurse advice lines, disease management, employee cost sharing, low-
premium/high deductible plans with health savings accounts—each of these strategies contains
major flaws, and none is likely to eliminate employers’ pain. Yet one strategy— adopted by the
health systems of virtually every developed country—is rarely discussed in the United States:
investing in primary care, advanced patient centered primary care a patient centered medical
home (PCMH).
2. Dr. Grundy, what is a Trusted Healer and what role should this person play in our
healthcare? In every society, who would you say holds a high position of trust? It’s several
people. It’s family. It’s somebody who could give you guidance on what happens to you in your
afterlife. It’s somebody who you turn to when the chips are down. We all know instinctively that
we are going to get sick; we all know we are going to die. We try to deny that, but we know it.
There arises the power of that person in that position in society, the traditional healers, Trusted
Healers. In every culture on earth, the healer and the preacher are held in highest esteem. The
global societal sea change quietly happening over the The very cornerstone the foundation of care
of value you see as social animals we seek a trusting relationship when the chips are down. In
most surveys people will tell you they trust family first then their clinician.
3. Dr. Grundy, why have you tirelessly advocated for the expansion of medical homes? Your
Trusted Healer and his or her team in your medical home knows all about you, asks
about your family, helps you make good medical decisions, and creates a medical
partnership based solely on your needs and how you want to lead your life. The
relationship with your healer is intimate. Your healer serves your interests—not those of
an insurance company or hospital. Your doctor’s success is yours as well. It can be
easily proven that better medical decisions result from such a powerful relationship. It
works it is the very foundation of the move to value and population health. It is not an
overstatement to say– the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is the foundation of
Accountable Care Organization (ACO) – are not only working but are worth expanding.
4. If you put your stethoscope back on, can you tell us what people can do to stay healthy?
 All the things your mother told you
 Eat Right. Eat food, not to much, mostly vegetables
 Exercise

 Get enough sleep
 Wash your hands
 Don't smoke
 Avoid and sugary drinks
 Get a flu shot and other immunizations
 Drink lots of water
 Have a trusting relationship with your primary care clinician who has a plan for you including
needed screening exams, for BP, cancer screening cardiac screening
 Make and keep friends close – relationships of value with family and friends really helps you
stay healthy and live longer
5. Why is healthcare access still seen as a privilege – and not a right – in America? The answer
from those who see it as a privilege is about cost – but they are wrong. For those who cannot
afford healthcare – they just don’t understand why such an essential of life in a developed nation
is denied. The most expensive care is in an emergency room because the problem was not dealt
with upstream. About 20 percent to 30 percent of all health care spending in the United States
goes for over treatment—much of it dangerous. We have had a failure of imagination and
political will. We have a $3 trillion industry seen as a privilege.
6. You have traveled the globe and studied what other countries are doing right and wrong
with healthcare. How does America stack up? America has the best sick care in the world but
lacks the robust primary care investment (only 4.7% of total healthcare is spent on primary care).
So our hospital ER’s and beds stay pretty full. Also, the number one cause of bankruptcy in
America is healthcare bills. Denmark spends 19% of total care on primary care, They have the
best. In Denmark, 93.7 % of all care is done at the primary care level with the lowest medical
error rate and highest patient satisfaction. The administrative overhead for the cost of that care is
1.2% in Denmark vs 31% for the USA.
7. With the increasing consolidation of hospital and healthcare systems, what’s resulted in
terms of quality of care, access, and cost? This consolidation has actually enabled more robust
primary care in that larger healthcare organizations value and can afford the transition to a
recognition of excellence for their practices as medical homes. We will really feel the difference
when insurance companies fully mandate value-based reimbursement instead of volume based
reimbursement and doctor can practice without their compensation being based on volume of
visits.
8. Why do most other wealthy nations spend half of what Americans do for healthcare – and
end up providing more services to more people? Because most of those services are for robust
Trusted Healers and medical homes. Illnesses are dealt with early. Patients see their medical
home team whenever they need to at no cost. People are healthier, happier and the nation benefits
because of the elimination of overuse of the ER and not caring properly for chronic illness.
9. Are you for Medicare for all? Why? Universal healthcare for all it makes the most economic
sense when primary care is provided at no cost to the patient. That could be in several forms.
The “Douglas model for all” (the Canadian system we adopted for over 65 Medicare) where
government is the payer but does not run the hospitals or clinics. Or, it could be the Beverage
model in the UK (like our VA where the government runs the hospitals the docs are employees) –

that would be “VA for all.” OR the model in most of the world, the Bismarck model of Holland,
Switzerland or Germany “health insurance for all.”
10. How can more people rise up to become leaders in healthcare? Healthcare leaders need to be
reminded to carefully mentor the next generation, as I often do. We have national and
international associations that mentor other nations and encourage involvement from each
generation in the planning. Consumers can begin to expect more. Consumers can begin asking
questions, taking a deeper interest in why there are two hour waits to see your doctor, asking why
after hours care is not available, (but my pediatrician has weekend hours and is on call 24-7) and
asking local news organizations to examine the use (or not) of evidence-based medicine in your
area. Ask local elected leaders what they plan to do to improve care and access to healthcare in
your community. And what they can do to help solve the problems of poverty and social
determinants, food deserts, gang violence, drop out crises, homelessness, mental illness, etc).
11. What did you learn about medicine and healing from spending your youth in Sierra Leone,
West Africa? The value of other cultures, the power of trust of the traditional healer. From the
missionary doctors who were my mentors and role models, I learned the value of service.
12. Why did Nelson Mandela call you a “good troublemaker”? He called me the “Best kind of
trouble maker” a troublemaker with a social conscience – I helped engaged our nation’s resources
with the African National Congress to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic. That had to be done with a
deft touch. Clandestine might be a better word because of the racial divisions and the struggle of a
nation emerging from repression.
13. You were there when President Barack Obama signed the executive order to mandate the
medical home model in all Veterans Administration, military medicine, and government
employee medical coverage. How do we expand on that model for everyone to enjoy? It is
call a tipping point – build a social movement and broad-based coalition around the early
followers, support them, celebrate success then find other willing and able adopters to follow the
movement. That’s exactly what we are doing in America and in other nations seeking to
transform their healthcare. After the governmental medical system adopted the medical home,
many of the nation’s large healthcare systems embraced the new model, as did thousands of
independent practices.
We’re on our way.
The US has adopted the medical home in about half of our primary care practices.
There are 210 pilot “primary care homes” in Great Britain, as they are just getting started.
Readers can help by asking their primary care doctor when he or she plans to gain medical home
recognition.
14. How are you continuing to advance our healthcare system with your work today at
Innovaccor, Inc.? We still champion the medical home all over the world. We are nurturing
dozens of nations’ first steps toward robust primary care. I was drawn to work with this new IT
company because of their commitment and breakthroughs to solve the problems of the primary
care providers.
We are advancing primary care by looking for one more first follower, one more convert to the
cause of moving healthcare to value. Innovaccer is a platform with the technology to change the
face of medicine, bringing all the information the Trusted Healer needs to the point of care. In the
past, the medical home could not tell if the patient had been to see other primary care doctors,

made emergency visits, had insurance claims from other provider groups, or received social
support. Having everything there at the top of the medical record is phenomenal.
The Medical Home & Trusted Healer
Healthcare Revolution

What is the medical home?
A medical home provides access to your Trusted Healer when you need it, anytime day or night. This
new model builds upon and improves on old-style primary care, which decades ago had been patient-
centered, comprehensive and personal. The refined version advocated by Paul builds into that model
team-based, coordinated care that is accessible and focuses on quality and safety. All over the developed
world, vast numbers of Trusted Healers are once again finding joy, practicing under the medical home
model.
Not unlike the difference between a horse-drawn buggy and a powerful sports car, this approach provides
a big departure from the typical twentieth-century medical office.
When we complete this global transformation, the table will be set for solving other big issues which
today look an unbridgeable distance away. Evidence is already mounting that the medical home is our
path forward.
“The medical home concept was first used in 1967 by the American Academy of Pediatrics as an ideal for
the care of special needs children,” Dan Pelino says in his new book, Trusted Healers. A quarter-century
later, the AAP adopted as a formal policy statement, ‘the medical care of all infants, children, and
adolescents should be accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated,
compassionate, and culturally effective.”
Dr. Paul Grundy, who is featured in Pelino’s book, has championed the advancing role of the medical
home, adding in nurse-practitioners, physician assistants, and registered nurses, freeing up the doctor to
practice medicine. “Doctors all over the world embraced the concept of the trusted healer,” recognizing
that the healer can be a key member of the team is well,” writes Pelino.
The medical home transformation has unfolded for thousands of medical practices, as doctors regained
the joy of the practice of medicine, helping physicians and the care team to end their burnout crisis and
improve patient care.
Most healthcare insurance in the country is bought and paid for by large corporations on behalf of
employees. The other big buyers of healthcare include the Veterans Administration, the Department of
Defense, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, Medicare, and Medicaid. Each organization
needs to have a hand in the reform movement. So a common platform was needed, a new organization
that focused on the transformation of primary care.
Dr. Grundy seized the momentum and set about to create an exchange of excellence with the best
healthcare providers in the world. This initiated a worldwide dialogue about the vital importance to
Trusted Healer and a medical home. Other nations, particularly Denmark, had based their healthcare
around robust primary care and sported a widely acclaimed medical system, both from a quality of care
and a cost standpoint. Others could lead from that experience.

In 2006, business and primary care joined together and created this platform for change. All the
stakeholder organizations had a seat at the table – the primary care associations, insurance companies,
equipment manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, health systems, mental health, long-term
care, the Veterans Administration, Department of Defense, US government employees, Medicare and
Medicaid…everyone.
Because of the highly collaborative nature of their work together, they named this powerhouse
organization the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC).
Here’s what they agreed to do together:
 Advance an effective and efficient health system built on a strong foundation of primary care and
the patient-centered medical home.
 Facilitate improvements in patient-physician relations.
 Create a more effective and efficient model of healthcare delivery.
According to the Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home, developed and maintained by a
number of professional societies, the five main features of a successful patient-centered medical home
published on the PCPCC website include:
 Providing comprehensive care by considering the patient as a whole person and supporting both
mental and physical health with a coordinated care team.
 Taking a patient-centered approach to care delivery by developing meaningful relationships with
the patient, her family, and her caregivers that considers the patient’s socioeconomic and cultural
values and preferences.
 Employing care-coordination strategies by harnessing health information exchange, EHR
interoperability, and population health management analytics. This ensures that patient health
information is accessible and usable at all care sites across the healthcare continuum.
 Ensuring the accessibility of services by offering extended hours, alternative sites for care during
emergencies, improving the scheduling process, or making use of technologies such as telehealth,
mHealth, and home-monitoring devices. (The term mHealth refers to use of mobile and wireless
technologies to support the achievement of health objectives.)
 Focusing on care quality and patient safety by using evidence-based medicine clinical decision
support tools, healthcare analytics, and best practices. This will provide a safe, high-quality,
satisfactory experience for each and every patient.
The wonderful thing that primary care doctors have is a continuity of relationship with their patients. A
primary care home is attractive because it promotes integration, multidisciplinary work, and care
coordination. Robust primary care homes can detect and treat chronic diseases earlier, and be more
involved n the prevention stage than just the treatment phase.
“As Congress debates healthcare reform, a terrific model can be founded in Trusted Healers,” says
Pelino. “The medical home and trusted healer concept has proven to be a cost-effective, long-term
success for the quality delivery of healthcare.”

Selected Excerpts

“You will never look at healthcare the same way again.” – Patrick J. Kennedy
If after reading this book you change the way you think about your healthcare, then we have succeeded in
our aspiration for Trusted Healers. It is a book about hope, which lives within the ongoing heartbeat of
healthcare around the world.
Answers: Dr. Glenn D. Steele
“There’s a reason Dan Pelino has gathered some of the brightest and most powerful minds in healthcare
to help us understand where we are on this journey and what the future will look like. Powerful societal
questions need to be addressed by every culture. By following the amazing decade-long crusade of Dr.
Paul Grundy around the world, the answers emerge.”
Access to Healthcare
First, and foremost, we must enable access to healthcare. The citizens of developed nations that assure
access to care get rewarded for that with significantly longer life spans and happier people. By having
access, we are able to gain and nurture information. Within that achievement is also the management of
cost and quality, and the creation of actionable patient information.
Trusted Healers
Under Paul’s vision, your Trusted Healer and the clinical team know all about you, ask about your
family, help you make good medical decisions, and create a medical partnership based solely on your
needs, and how you want to lead your life. The relationship with your healer is intimate. Your healer
serves your interests – not an insurance company or hospital. Your doctor’s success is yours as well. It
can be easily proven that better medical decisions result from such a powerful relationship.
Paul knows we hold our Trusted Healer in the highest regard. He reminds us that we have
moved into the new Age of Healthcare Intelligence. We are newly empowered to influence our
own health and well-being.
Temper of our Times
Trusted Healers do not offer a view of a single solution, or point of view on what to do about our broken
U.S. healthcare system. We all know the temper of our times is strident and divisive. We have been
pitted against each other and our institutions. Medicine, especially primary care, is treated as a
commodity.
Doctors are often reduced to mechanics, meeting a patient-load quota. Insurance companies decide levels
of care, or as Patrick J. Kennedy so rightly points out, no care at all. Paul, IBM, and scores of
conscientious providers around the world, strive to re-instill patient trust into medical care. A lot of
people around world are pulling for us.
Mental Health Parity
Patrick J. Kennedy:
We must recognize societally—not just in healthcare—that mental illnesses and addiction are treatable.
When those who are disenfranchised receive care, they also receive hope, and that hope becomes the
vanguard of transformation.

Trusted Healers will leave you with a new understanding of the pace of change in healthcare, why we
behave the way we do, and what we have in common with other cultures. As Patrick J. Kennedy says,
“You will never look at healthcare the same way again.”
We are on a positive glide path. There has never been a time with more innovations coming forward in
every discipline of medicine. America, like many other nations, stands at the threshold of change in
primary care.
Yet, in the US, we are just cracking the door to the crisis in mental health and opioid addiction. We have a
completely broken mental health culture and, as a result, a completely broken mental healthcare system.
Patrick explains that we are in the biggest single public health crisis of our time.
Our cold silence has created a layer of protective ice over America’s heart. Just look at us. Discard the
blinders. Take a look at the numbing, frigid impact of our cultural code of silence about mental health.
It’s not apathy. It’s cultural. It’s taboo. It’s tribal.
What Is The Medical Home?
A medical home provides access to your Trusted Healer when you need it, anytime day or night. This
new model builds upon and improves on old style primary care which decades ago had been patient-
centered comprehensive and personal. There was a genuine bond between doctor and patient, a holistic
approach to healing based on knowing all about a patient and listening to them. The refined version
advocated by Paul builds into that model team-based, coordinated care that is accessible and focusses on
quality and safety. All over he developed world, vast numbers of Trusted Healers are once again finding
joy, practicing under the medical home model.
Dr. Michael Roizen and Chronic Disease Management: How We Can All Win
Chronic disease management accounts for more than 84 percent of healthcare costs. If you achieve at
least four of the following normal measures of good health, as well as two behaviors, you’ll dodge
chronic disease about 80 percent of the time.
The Six
 Regain and maintain normal blood pressure. Your target: below 130/85.
 Regain and maintain a normal level of lousy LDL cholesterol. Your target: 100 milligrams per
deciliter or lower if you do not have diabetes or vascular disease; below seventy if you do.
 Regain and maintain a normal fasting blood glucose level of 107 mg/dL or below, or HgbAlc
below 6.4 mg/dL.
 Achieve the healthy weight for your height. With a body mass index below thirty (obesity) and
aiming to get below twenty-eight.
 Have your asthma managed. While we started with this asthma management goal, we have found
with other companies that learning and practicing stress management gives more health and a
faster ROI. Practice ongoing stress management.
 Have a cotinine level indicating no primary consumption of tobacco products, no smoke from
tobacco in your body. Declare yourself a smoke free zone.
The Two
 See our primary care doctor so you know your number, including blood pressure, lousy LDL
cholesterol, blood glucose, body mass index, etc.

 Make sure your vaccinations are up to date. (Boosters are essential to protect you from whooping
cough, tetanus, and diphtheria. Everyone needs an annual flu shot; it decreases flu and lung
problems plus lowers stroke and heart attack risk. Folks fifty-plus need the shingles vaccine and
sixty-five-plus need the vaccine for pneumonia.)
Britain’s Healthcare Crisis: Dr. Michael Roizen:
“America has exported its bad habits: too much stress, too much toxins, but especially too little physical
activity and too much food and too much of the wrong food. Our cost destruction of the economy through
health needs has crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific.
“The problem with England is the problem with the whole world, if you will,” Dr. Roizen said. “England
does rationing based on age. And so Paul is really, really needed there. And maybe that’s why Paul got
more medical home pilots going there.
The British healthcare system, like ours, is in real crisis,” Dr. Roizen said.
“America’s system is in crisis but most people don’t understand it’s in crisis, yet. We do not accept that
because of the way we have rationed things and the patchwork we have done. Britain has realized it and
that’s why the National Health System is in real crisis.”
Direct Primary Care
Imagine this. A healthcare system with no waiting, no schedulers, no intermediaries. Patients can call,
they can text, and they can use any of the technologies available to contact their own primary care
physician.
That physician answers his or her phone 24/7. No time limits. No backup of other patients in the
congested waiting room. Patients have unlimited primary care services, complete access to their physician
directly with no copays or deductibles. No impossible demands of the doctor while being force-fed the
misery of volume-based compensation.
Sounds like a fantasy, right?
In New Jersey some are living the dream.

Dr. Doug Henley and Death Of Healthcare By 1,000 Clicks
But the issue of increasing regulatory and administrative burden, especially prior authorization, present a
huge challenge and needs attention by employers, policy makers, and payers. Additionally, dysfunctional
and clunky EHRs have only added to this burden by making all physicians – especially primary care
doctors – very expensive data entry clerks taking precious time away from patient care and the important
connection between patient and physician.
It has become “the death of the healing relationship by a thousand clicks,” Dr. Henley said. And the result
has been the erosion of trust, quality of care, and patient and physician satisfaction.
The Denmark Model
The power of this simple idea now plays out in many nations, most notably Denmark. Not only is it
recognized for the best primary care system on earth, the Danes love it!
They spend significantly less on healthcare than we do, and because their citizens have 24/7 access to
care, they have been able to eliminate expensive, duplicated, and inappropriate medical care. Even though
they offer a Trusted Healer to every citizen, their costs dropped dramatically. Clinical quality improved

so much that healthcare leaders from over sixty nations have sent delegations to Denmark to study just
how they did it.
Enough time has passed now that we can confidently conclude that building up primary care, making
affordable access to care 24/7, and having a personal Trusted Healer initiates much better, less expensive
healthcare.

Healthcare Leaders Who Inspire
Think about the great leaders that inspire you. If you are a true leader, you want to inspire. You believe in
the power of inspiration, as the leader. Then inspiration is what you do to bring people along. You inspire
them. There is nothing greater than inspiring people. Spell it out in neon. I had the opportunity to be
inspired by Nick Donofrio. I have the honor of inspiring Paul, and he in turn, inspires me.
Find and keep a mentor. As leadership roles grow, you will have less and less feedback from people who
work with you. Rely on your punch-in-the-gut-if-necessary mentor to help you make the course
corrections and speed adjustments that invariably will be needed.
Paul inspires a world of primary care to believe that things can become much better if we bring the
primary care practice into a medical home environment. And he inspires entire nations to base their
healthcare system on a core of robust primary care.
Exercise discipline to control your speed and course. There is little room for making a mistake. If you’re
on the right path, go faster. Paul has a different pace for every culture that comes to him for guidance. He
moves with the pace of that culture, respecting their traditions and taboos, and asking the questions that
will help them make good decisions about their healthcare future.

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