 Welcome to State of Affairs. I'm Steve Adubato. We are coming to you from the Agnes Vera studio here at NJTV. We are welcoming Robert Garrett, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Hackensack Meridian Health. Good to see you, Bob. Good to see you, Steve. Not much happening in the healthcare world, huh? No, nothing at all. Nothing in the news, nothing going on. By the way, talk about this, the partnership, the merger that happened when, exactly? Our merger, Hackensack University Health Network and Meridian Health merged July 1st. So we're nine months old as a new organization. And lots, lots happened in those nine months. We've made great progress on a lot of fronts. So we're excited, excited about the future of our organization. And in spite of what you hear about healthcare, we're excited about the future of healthcare. New brand just came out. It did. We, we launched it last week with a reception for all of our leaders at the NJPAC in Newark. And our brand can be best described as well-orchestrated. We're a well-orchestrated organization, you know, an organization that plans and executes really well. So we thought a great place for, for the launch would be an orchestra, you know, site for famous orchestras, which is the NJPAC. And if you look at our, our new logo here, it, there's a, there's a center to it with a, with a hole that looks like kind of an orchestra pit with the orchestra surrounding it. So a lot of symbolism around it, but, but we're excited about what the brand really represents, which is, which is really bringing health and, and care together because as a healthcare organization today, it's not just about delivering care. It's also about keeping the population healthy. To a disclose, I've worked with a fair number of physician leaders and others within the hack and sac meridian system during communication, coaching and seminars over the years. I know the system quite well. And Bob, I want to ask you this. One of the things that, that has made the news is, it's not really a merger, but it's a collaboration of partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering. It is obviously, talk about brands, cancer institution that's got incredible reputation. What is the partnership and why does it matter? We are incredibly excited about the partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. So it is taking two great brands, putting them together. But most importantly, we think it's going to transform how cancer care is delivered in our state. How? Give us an example. So how it's going to work is it's, it's, there's really two parts the way I look at it. There's 11 existing cancer centers, ambulatory cancer centers in the hack and sac meridian network all through New Jersey. There's soon to be three Memorial Sloan Kettering sites. So for those 14 sites, we will co-brand those, those organizations with Memorial Sloan Kettering and Hack and Sac Meridian Health. But more importantly, we're going to develop one set of clinical protocols that will guide how cancer patients are treated. So if you're treated at Ocean Medical Center or at Hack and Sac University Medical Center or at Memorial Sloan Kettering, you will get the same treatment, the same set of clinical protocols. That's, that's one part of the partnership. The second part is together, we will own and operate cancer centers, new cancer centers in the state of New Jersey. So we're looking for the appropriate sites. We're looking for the right, the right location and the, the right mix of, of demographics to, to locate new cancer centers where Sloan Kettering Memorial Sloan Kettering and Hack and Sac Meridian will actually own them together. Cancer rates in New Jersey, are they higher than we think they are? Or is it that our reputation? No, they're significantly higher. There's been studies by the American Cancer Society and other organizations that indicate that they are, you know, one, one and a half times, two times higher depending on the part of New Jersey that we're at. So unfortunately, it's a disease that's going to be, be with us for a while. And what people really want is they want, they want quality cancer care delivered in, in convenient locations. So they don't necessarily want to have to go to, to New York or to Philadelphia if you're in New Jersey. So by putting Memorial Sloan Kettering and Hack and Sac Meridian together, we think we can, we can deliver the best quality care in a very accessible location. We'll have over 1000 clinical trials, which is unprecedented, 1000 clinical trials available to, to cancer patients. And between the two organizations, Steve, one other stat I like to, to talk about because it's, it's staggering. We, between the two organizations, we will do over 900 bone marrow transplants this year, which means not only are we number one in the nation, but we'll be the second largest in the entire world. The other thing you mentioned is, which is important because medical education is a piece that we've talked about a lot. The physician shortage, New Jersey losing a lot of physicians, people who may be trained here and go someplace else. The new medical education facility, excuse me, the new medical school, it's a partnership with so many partnerships here, the Seton Hall partnerships, talk about it and why it matters in terms of caring for patients in this state. What is it? Is it 2018? Yeah, 2018. So we formed a partnership with Seton Hall to establish what will be New Jersey's only private medical school. There is a physician shortage in New Jersey that is more significant than the primary care physicians, mostly primary care, but also obstetrics and gynecology. It's even general surgery, Steve. So it's, it's, it's widespread. And in just a couple of years by 2020, New Jersey will be short about 3,000 physicians. Nationally, it's about 125,000 physicians. So by, by having a private medical school, we hope to retain New Jersey residents who want to study medicine right here in New Jersey and also be able to attract some real talent from out of state. And the statistics show where students go to medical school, they are more likely to practice medicine. So we think this will be a great tool to put to provide a supply of physicians for generations to come. Give me one minute on the national health care landscape changing every minute as we speak. You know, I think there's a there's a couple trends that are going to happen. And I think as health care leaders, we need to step up no matter what happens in Washington. So whatever bill ultimately comes out of the Congress, I think there's going to be certain characteristics like there's going to be more decision making put into consumers hands, less government, less employers, more in consumers hands. So what does that mean? That means we have to provide accessible care to to consumers. We have to make sure care is as affordable as possible because they're going to have choices. We also need to be more transparent as an industry, meaning our quality results, our patient safety, even our pricing, we have to be very, very transparent to the to the consumer because they're going to be shopping around more decisions are going to be made by the individual consumer. So I believe, no matter what the final bill looks like, it will have those characteristics. Before I let you out of Garden of Dreams real quick, what is it? So the Garden of Dreams, we it's part of a partnership called Tackle Kids Cancer, which is a great program, which we're spreading awareness and raising money for pediatric cancer research. We've already raised $4.5 million. Thanks a lot to the help of Eli Manning and the New York Giants, who recognize Eli Manning for that as as the co man of the year. Absolutely. And recently we announced a partnership with Madison Square Garden and the Garden of Dreams. So we're happy to have them on board. They're going to help promote awareness and to raise money for for Tackle Kids Cancer. We're really excited about the partnership. Great iconic organization. You know, some of the sports histories made there almost every night. So we're really thrilled to partner with with those guys. Thank you, Bob. Appreciate it. Steve, thanks for the update. Not enough things going on, huh? State of affairs right after this.