DENVER—In response to today’s press conference by Rep. Rob Bishop and Sen. Mike Lee opposing a possible national monument designation in Utah’s Bears Ears region, the Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Deputy Director Greg Zimmerman:
“Representative Bishop and Senator Lee chose to let the Public Lands Initiative die on their watch, then have the gall to complain about the prospect of President Obama finishing what they failed to accomplish. Instead of pearl-clutching in front of cameras, they ought to look in the mirror and ask themselves why they failed to pass a conservation measure everyone agrees the Bears Ears region deserves.
“Protection for Bears Ears is eight decades overdue. The Antiquities Act was written precisely for cases like this, when Congress fails to do its job. It is now incumbent on President Obama to create a Bears Ears National Monument before he leaves office.”
Representative Bishop is the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Senator Lee sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Their Public Lands Initiative was supported by the entire Utah congressional delegation and Utah Governor Gary Herbert. With Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, nothing prevented them from sending the PLI to President Obama's desk.
For 80 years, politicians have been all talk but no action when it comes to Bears Ears
Utah privatizes land inside proposed Bears Ears National Monument
Opponents of Bears Ears monument blame badgers for looting and grave robbing
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Not Just a Silicon Valley Phenomenon, High-Tech Innovation Shapes Utah, Too, Says Leading Tech Policy Think Tank in Study of U.S. Congressional Districts
WASHINGTON—While policy discussions about technology and innovation issues often focus narrowly on iconic places like Silicon Valley or Boston’s Route 128 corridor, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) reported in a new study that high-tech innovation plays a critical role in the economy in all four congressional districts in Utah too.
ITIF, the leading U.S. think tank for science and technology policy, examined 20 indicators of the innovation-driven high-tech economy—both traditional economic data such as technology exports and newer metrics such as broadband deployment—to paint statistical portraits of all 435 U.S. congressional districts, 50 states, and the District of Columbia. It found a nation in which the drivers of high-tech innovation are widely diffused.
“The myopic view that the high-tech economy is only Silicon Valley and a few other bright spots like Boston or North Carolina’s Research Triangle is flat wrong,” said Robert D. Atkinson, ITIF’s president. “Indeed, all districts in Utah have some kind of tech-driven activity occurring locally. This should serve as a signal to every member of Congress from Utah and the rest of the country that tech matters to their states and districts, so they should support broad-based, bipartisan policies to spur further innovation and growth at home and across the nation.”
The new ITIF report includes statistical profiles of Utah and each of its congressional districts, as well as specific examples of companies, universities, and other organizations driving innovation locally.
Utah ranked among the top 10 states for the following indicators of the innovation-driven high-tech economy:
· High-tech share of total workforce (#6)
· Computer and math share of STEM workers (#8)
· Average number of broadband providers per household (#7)
Congressional districts in Utah also ranked in the top 50 districts nationally for the following indicators:
· IT services exports (UT-03, #48)
· Royalty and license services exports (UT-03, #39)
· Royalty and license share of all services exports (UT-03, #36)
· High-tech sector workers (UT-04, #45)
· High-tech share of total workforce (UT-04, #43)
· Computer and math share of STEM workers (UT-03, #34; UT-04, #44)
“The country’s innovation-driven, high-tech economy really is much more widely diffused than most people imagine,” said Atkinson. “We urge members of Congress and other policymakers to find common cause in advancing an agenda that continues to build up the foundations of an innovation-driven economy, including a highly skilled workforce, robust research and development spending, digital-age infrastructure, and globally competitive tech-driven industries. It’s the surest way to raise productivity, bolster competitiveness, and boost wages.”
To read the report, browse interactive maps, and download individual profiles for Utah and each of its congressional districts, visit itif.org/technation.
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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is an independent, nonpartisan research and educational institute focusing on the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. Recognized as one of the world’s leading science and technology think tanks, ITIF’s mission is to formulate and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress. Learn more at itif.org.
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Just in Time for the Holidays: AMA’s New Health Systems Science Textbook
Textbook on newly developed “Third Science” is officially available for purchase
CHICAGO – The American Medical Association’s (AMA) new “Health Systems Science” textbook, which was first announced last month, is officially available for shipment starting tomorrow. Developed as part of the AMA’s ongoing effort to develop bold, innovative ways to improve physician training, the textbook will help physicians navigate the nation’s health care system as it moves toward value-based care.
“As part of the AMA’s initiative to create the medical school of the future, we collaborated with the nation’s leading medical schools to develop a formalized strategy and textbook that can be used by all medical schools to ensure that physicians in training can learn how to deliver care that meets the needs of patients in modern health systems,” said AMA CEO James L. Madara, M.D. “While our medical schools are very good at preparing students for the basic and clinical sciences that are paramount to providing care to patients, what is largely missing is how to deliver that care in a complex health system. We believe this new textbook will help fill that gap for medical students across the country.”
In recent years, the AMA collaborated with its 32-school Consortium to identify innovations, and “Health Systems Science” emerged as the third pillar of medical education that should be integrated with the two existing pillars: basic and clinical sciences. Together, the AMA and the 11 founding Consortium schools wrote a textbook to formalize this concept to help medical schools across the country teach their students the knowledge, skills and behaviors they will need to deliver care in the rapidly changing health care environment while also understanding how patients receive and access that care.
The new “Health Systems Science” textbook focuses on value in health care, patient safety, quality improvement, teamwork and team science, leadership, clinical informatics, population health, socio-ecological determinants of health, health care policy and health care economics. Many schools within the Consortium have already begun implementing Health Systems Science into their curricula and will soon use the textbook with their students, including Penn State College of Medicine and Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School.
While parts of the new “Health Systems Science” textbook have already been in use in several Consortium schools, it is now officially available to all medical schools across the country. The textbook, published by Elsevier, will serve as a platform from which the Consortium schools will build additional Health Systems Science tools and innovations that can be shared throughout the nation’s medical schools. The textbook is available for purchase at the AMA Store.
The AMA launched its Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative in 2013—providing $11 million in grants to fund major innovations at 11 of the nation’s medical schools. Together, these schools formed a Consortium that shares best practices with a goal of widely disseminating the new and innovative curricula being developed. The AMA expanded its Consortium in 2015 with grants to an additional 21 schools to develop new curricula that better align undergraduate medical education with the modern health care system.
The AMA will continue its efforts to accelerate change in medical education to ensure future physicians learn about the newest technologies, health care reforms and scientific discoveries that continue to alter what physicians need to know to practice in modern health care systems.
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