Newswise — Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will address the 15th Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), April 27, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

A renowned expert on health policy and the art of transformational change, Newt Gingrich devotes much of his time to developing and sharing solutions-oriented approaches to the great challenges faced by America's health system. Speaker Gingrich has lead many non-partisan efforts with key leaders from across the nation to advance this issue of great national importance. In 2003, Speaker Gingrich founded the Center for Health Transformation (CHT). CHT is a unique collaboration of leaders dedicated to accelerating the adoption of transformational solutions, policies and technologies in order to create a 21st Century Intelligent Health and Healthcare System that is characterized by better outcomes and more choices at lower cost. A Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Center maintains a variety of policy projects on health issues ranging from consumerism to diabetes care to healthcare and homeland security.

"We need to fully transform the health system on multiple levels " it's not enough to simply reform diabetes care," said Speaker Gingrich. "If as a country we can re-center our health system around a reliable model of prevention and improved care, we will truly be making progress toward achieving a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money for all Americans. I am proud to echo AACE's commitment to transforming healthcare through the practice of cutting-edge, wellness-focused, and cost-effective medicine."

The Center's most comprehensive operational venture is its State of Georgia Project, which is dedicated to creating a state model for the development of an intelligent health system. CHT leads the Healthy Georgia Diabetes & Obesity Project, a partnership of public and private sector groups committed to improving the treatment and outcomes for people with diabetes and to promoting early diagnosis and prevention of diabetes, including decreasing the prevalence of obesity. Goals of the project include reducing the incidence of diabetes and obesity (as well as the complications and death rate associated with both conditions) through consistent implementation of best practices; reducing health disparities in racial, ethnic and rural populations disproportionately impacted by diabetes and obesity; and improving public awareness and patient understanding of diabetes and its control.

"Speaker Gingrich is highly regarded as a dynamic, visionary thought leader in this rapidly evolving field," says AACE President, Bill Law, Jr., MD, FACE. "His proactive messages focus on themes strongly endorsed by AACE, including the personal desirability and societal necessity of promoting preventive health measures and personal responsibility for individual's health. AACE strongly supports the desirability of less governmental and third-party administrative interference in our care of our patients, increased patient empowerment and unrestricted choice of physician."

Annual Meeting Program Committee Co-Chair, Donald A. Bergman, MD, FACE, adds, "Speaker Gingrich has set up a health care think tank that deals exactly with this issue of getting medicine ready for the 21st century " having patients more involved in directing their health care, being more knowledgeable and most importantly making healthy choices in terms of diet, nutrition and physical activity."

Speaker Gingrich will give his address on Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 11:15 a.m. The AACE Fifteenth Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress will convene until the following Sunday and will highlight new research in the fields of diabetes, thyroid cancer, osteoporosis, lipid disorders, androgen use, and abuse of performance enhancing drugs will be during plenary lectures and interactive workshops. In addition, hundreds of medical abstracts ranging from osteoporosis to reproductive endocrinology will be presented at exclusive poster sessions for registered media. A preview of all abstracts, as well as an online registration form, an invitation to the media poster session preview, and facts about endocrine disorders can all be found by logging on to the AACE Annual Meeting media page at http://www.aace.com.

Newt Gingrich served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995-1999. Since retiring from Congress, Speaker Gingrich has worked extensively in a bipartisan manner on the issues of health and healthcare, devoting the majority of his time to advocating a transformation of the entire system. Speaker Gingrich has authored numerous health publications, columns and books, including the book Saving Lives & Saving Money, which was co-written by staff of the Center for Health Transformation and lays out the vision, principles and strategies of the Center. His recent best-seller, Winning the Future, includes key chapters on health and healthcare, based on his work at CHT.

During Speaker Gingrich's twenty years of service in Congress, his leadership helped save Medicare from bankruptcy, prompted FDA reform to help the seriously ill and initiated a new focus on research, prevention and wellness. Mr. Gingrich is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research and sits on the Board of Regents at the National Library of Medicine. In addition, he co-chairs the National Commission for Quality Long Term Care. A longtime advocate of people with diabetes, he is an active member of the Board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

For more information about the Center for Health Transformation, please visit http://www.healthtransformation.net.

AACE is a professional medical organization with more than 5,300 members in the United States and 85 other countries. Founded in 1991, AACE is dedicated to the optimal care of patients with endocrine problems. AACE initiatives inform the public about endocrine disorders. AACE also conducts continuing education programs for clinical endocrinologists, physicians whose advanced, specialized training enables them to be experts in the care of endocrine disease, such as diabetes, thyroid disorders, growth hormone deficiency, osteoporosis, cholesterol disorders, hypertension and obesity.

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AACE Fifteen Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress