By skyforbes 
Expand and improve Medicaid and Medicare
Put a cap on how much CEO makes in salaries and bonuses
Lower essential medications’ cost
Invest in primary care to address obesity, diabetes and hypertension
Advance school-based programs and telemedicine to ease access to healthcare, and keep supporting prevention programs proven effective like vaccines and access to parks
As a part of our interview series called “5 Things We Must Do To Improve the US Healthcare System”, I had the pleasure to interview Yossef Alnasser.
The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other developed nation, yet millions of families still struggle to access affordable, quality care. Nowhere is that gap felt more sharply than in pediatrics, where preventable hospital visits and untreated conditions add both financial and emotional strain. Dr. Yossef Alnasser, a pediatrician and physician-scientist trained at Johns Hopkins, the University of British Columbia, and George Washington University, has seen those cracks in the system up close while caring for children in the Bronx.
With more than 50 publications to his name and a career dedicated to blending research with frontline care, he argues that the system can do better. From harnessing telemedicine to rethinking how we tackle inequities, Dr. Alnasser is focused on scalable solutions that ease costs and improve outcomes. We spoke with him about the five changes he believes are critical to building a stronger, fairer healthcare system for America’s future.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
After my father passed away when I was 8 months old, my mother raised me with the help of her community. My mother was a kind human who liked to help the poor and disenfranchised families. I remember at age of 6 years; my mom would take me with her to give food and clothes to families living in poverty in the slums of our city. She knew the widow who is raising her kids alone and the elder woman who was taking care of her grandchild with disability, witnessing this at a young age inspired me to help and serve. In high school, I saw the movie “Patch Adams,” The late Robin Williams and the real Patch Adams inspired me to use my sense of humor and positive energy to help children and ease their pain. For years, Patch Adams quote echoed in my ears “I entered medicine to use as a vehicle for social change.” Today, I hope I am contributing to alleviating pain, preventing diseases and boosting the health of poor and marginalized children in New York and around the globe.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Stories and storytelling are powerful tools for making changes to enhance equity and equality. Let me share a story about compassion for a single mother dealing with her child with neurodevelopmental divergence. Her 4 years old son was getting scattered care and did not have a medical home. He suffered from autism, anger outbursts and aggression. He was non-verbal and had no means of communication. Additionally, he doesn’t like to keep his clothes on and was not potty trained which made caring for him hard. Mom needed to take the train with him to go from one borough to another to New York to visit family members and did not know how to keep his socks and shoes on. So, she improvised and put rubber bands on his socks and took the train. By the time they arrived, mom noticed he was in pain and unable to walk. She did not know what to do so she rushed to the emergency room while forgetting about the rubber bands. In the emergency room, they examined him and noticed the rubber bands causing significant ischemia to his feet and almost cut the blood supply to his limbs. The emergency room doctor asked mom how he got the rubber bands on his feet, and she honestly said she did put them there to keep him from taking his socks and shoes off. The doctor rightly called child protective services, and I do not know why but mom ended up spending a night in jail. She made a terrible mistake but was innocent and out of desperation. Although she lived in New York, she felt she was on a deserted island. She was referred to me to do a full child abuse investigation and be the medical home for this family. After all child abuse work came up negative, except the bruises on both ankles, I started to make referrals and connect him to services. She made a mistake because we, the health system, failed her. Her child was not offered behavioral therapy to address his aggression, occupational therapy to help with daily living skills or medication to minimize his anger outbursts. I started him on Risperidone to make his aggression and self-mutilation manageable while he starts behavioral therapy. I wrote a letter to child protective services explaining how we failed mom and pushed her for an unreasonable solution. I connected mom with pro bono lawyer in case she needed to present in court after her night in jail. After months of working together, I was happy to see both thriving with care and services with no more accidents. There is no one who can love a child more than his own mother. I am glad I was able to keep them together with less burden on each other to grow and develop with the right support.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember when I was an intern, we had a child with eye discharge admitted for lung infection. We swabbed the eye and sent it to the labs. A few hours later and at the end of our shift, the lab called to report the result which was positive for a bacterial infection. I do not know why but the lab technician decided to scare me and said, “This bacteria is dangerous and you better treat it ASAP before the child goes blind.” I rushed to tell my senior resident about the results, but he was busy managing a sick child and handing over the patients to the night team. I asked him to talk to him urgently, but he dismissed me as he knew my children were all stable. I countered back, “But my child will go blind if we do not treat ASAP.” I was very concerned, and my kind senior resident told me to take a deep breath and wait for him to finish the handover. Later, we discussed this further after the handover. We reviewed the results together and found this to be a simple eye infection requiring a topical antibiotic in the form of eye drop. I prescribed that before I went home. This experience taught me the importance of staying calm and double-checking all the facts before scaling up care and disrupting the flow of work.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
The words of Gabrielle Williams strongly resonate: “We will only grow as big as we dream, that’s why we must dream big.” I was a kid from a single mom’s household who wanted to go to medical school and be involved in Global health while traveling the world. For some of my childhood friends, that was an intangible dream and way too big. Today, these are my realities, and I continue to dream bigger.
How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?
Compassionate, passionate, caring, knowledgeable but humble to ask for help when needed and good communicator.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a better healthcare leader? Can you explain why you like them?
Factfullness is one of my favorite books about global health and can readjust some of your misconceptions about the global south. Any book from the late Paul Farmer is just excellent and can open your eyes to inequality in healthcare. An Imperfect Offering by Dr. James Orbinski is a must read for any leader in humanitarian and not-for-profit organizations. For podcasts, I do enjoy both creating and listening to podcasts. I created a podcast called “Pediatrics Through Borders” to be a tool for transferring knowledge from the global North to the global South. When I listen, I like Pediatrics Oncall which is a medical podcast. For pleasure and storytelling, I like this American life as it helps me understand views of different people to be more accepting and compassionate.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I am working on multiple projects that I hope can be of help for inner-city children living in poverty. We are testing the feasibility of mHealth to promote physical activity among inner-city children. We are using a free app to encourage school age children to be physically active at home to overcome safety concerns and lack of access to gyms. Similarly, we are looking at the role of social determinants of health (SDoH) in putting children at risk of asthma readmission in the Bronx, New York in another project. Identifying significant SDoH can help public health champions to prioritize which SDoH to prioritize to prevent recurrent asthma admissions. Furthermore, we are looking into the child opportunity index to identify children with dyslipidemia in another research project. It carries similar public health significance. Globally, I am working on exploring determining factors for development delays for children living in low-income countries. From an advocacy point of view, I am supervising a group of resident doctors to promote breastfeeding among our community in the Bronx while advocating for equal access to breastfeeding pumps. Likewise, I am leading another group of resident doctors to fight food insecurity among families attending our outpatient clinics or being admitted to our hospital. Food insecurity is very common in Bronx, NY and can reach up to 40%. Fighting hunger is an essential and basic human right that needs to be addressed today and everyday as no child should go to bed on empty stomach.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. According to this study cited by Newsweek, the US healthcare system is ranked as the worst among high-income nations. This seems shocking. Can you share with us a few reasons why you think the US is ranked so poorly?
I doubt this conclusion is valid for all people. The US healthcare system is the most advanced and sophisticated system filled with innovations and new discoveries. The issue is who can access those innovations and state of art facilities. The US healthcare system suffers from high inequity and inequality. Look at New York, you have scientists, high-profile physicians and top-notch facilities to treat and cure sickle cell anemia. Despite a high number of children with severe sickle cell anemia, a handful of children were offered curative therapies. Why? Many children with sickle cell anemia live in poverty and are Medicaid beneficiaries. Access to those innovative therapies are dictated by insurance companies and policies. That’s what makes the US healthcare system hard to understand and ranked poorly. It puts cost first and pushes healthcare delivery models to have a business agenda.
As a “healthcare insider”, if you had the power to make a change, can you share 5 changes that need to be made to improve the overall US healthcare system?
- Expand and improve Medicaid and Medicare
- Put a cap on how much CEO makes in salaries and bonuses
- Lower essential medications’ cost
- Invest in primary care to address obesity, diabetes and hypertension
- Advance school-based programs and telemedicine to ease access to healthcare, and keep supporting prevention programs proven effective like vaccines and access to parks
What concrete steps would have to be done to actually manifest these changes? What can a) individuals, b) corporations, c) communities and d) leaders do to help?
It starts with individuals by owning their health and adopting an active lifestyle. Then, corporations need to address the cost and affordability of healthcare. Communities play a huge role especially in mental health crises. Going back to the basics of families and a sense of community can improve all of our health. Relationships matter for healthier generations to come. We need leaders who believe in science and the power of evidence instead of misinformation and rumors.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put intense pressure on the American healthcare system, leaving some hospital systems at a complete loss as to how to handle this crisis. Can you share with us examples of where we’ve seen the U.S. healthcare system struggle? How do you think we can correct these issues moving forward?
In the pandemic, and today, the US healthcare system failed to address healthcare providers burnout. Taking the joy out of medicine by paperwork and extensive documentation along with administrative tasks are pushing doctors and nurses away from the bedside and away from the patients. We need to utilize new technologies to bring doctors and nurses back to the bedside to recharge their energy and passion.
How do you think we can address the problem of physician shortages?
I am a firm believer in the power of telemedicine in not just addressing physician shortages, it can also reach the furthest and most rural areas. The best thing that happened to Telemedicine is COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic eased regulations and increased acceptance of telemedicine. With the advancement of technology, we can even do physical exams virtually. Telemedicine should be augmented and scaled up to overcome physician shortage at a lower cost without compromising on quality of care.
How do you think we can address the issue of physician and nurse burnout?
Using new technology like AI can help with extensive documentation and administrative tasks while ensuring physicians and nurses are not burdened with a high volume of patients to meet interest in profits and costs are my proposals to address physicians’ and nurses’ burnout.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
How can our readers further follow your work online? Thank you for being interested in my work. You can follow me on LinkedIn, and my research is available on ResearchGate and ORCID. I look forward to being connected and collaborating with you all.
Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.