by Erin Wiltgen

chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035

CHAPEL HILL -- The health care debate stews on Capitol Hill, and here in Chapel Hill the medical community seeks to stay informed with a series of panel discussions, the first of which took place Monday night.

The student-initiated forum, which was held from 5 to 6 p.m. in MacNider Hall at the UNC School of Medicine, intended to bring students, faculty and the community up to date on health care reform.

"Education extends outside the classroom," said Jonathan Oberlander, an associate professor in the School of Medicine and the Gillings School of Global Public Health and one of the experts on Monday night's panel. "There is a great hunger among medical students to learn about health reform."

Oberlander and three other doctors composed the panel. The other doctors included Warren Newton, the executive associate dean for education at the School of Medicine; Tim Carey, professor of medicine and director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research; and Brian Goldstein, chief of staff at UNC Hospitals.

After Oberlander gave a 10-minute presentation on the background of the health care debate, the doctors opened the room up for questions. The purpose of the forum was to share information in an enlightened and non-argumentative manner, Newton said.

"Our goal here is to generate light, not heat," he said at the forum.

All four doctors -- each one an expert on health care -- said that health care reform is an important topic for medical students, and society in general, to understand. Health care costs about $2.5 trillion a year and is almost one-fifth the size of the economy. There are 47 million Americans without health insurance, and one in six people in North Carolina are uninsured. These numbers alone make health care a crucial issue, Carey said.

"For me, it's important because as a clinician too often I've come across patients who have developed a serious medical illness, and they don't have health insurance, and they then face tens of thousands of expenses," he said. "I think we can do better as a society."

Understanding health care reform is crucial for medical students because it will affect their careers, Newton said. And medical students recognize that fact.

"This is going to affect every part of what we're going to do and practice," said Mary Campion, a first-year medical student. "I think just to speak about issues intelligently that affect your work and the health of your patients, it's important to have a background instead of just being ideological."

And apparently the medical community agrees. Monday's forum witnessed a room packed to bursting with people ranging from medical students, to hospital personnel to doctors and professors.

"I don't think I've ever seen so many medical students at an event without pizza," Oberlander joked at the beginning of his presentation.

Oberlander said he believes that such attendance reflects the mood of the medical community.

"It tells you something that they got that many students there at that time of day after having class," he said. "They understand what's at stake. The fact that next time we have to get a bigger room tells you everything you need to know."

The student interest in the forum, though a surprising amount, was somewhat expected since the event was student-initiated, said Ali Chhotani, co-president of the Whitehead Medical Society, the medical school student government, which helped coordinate the event.

"There were lots of first- and second-year med students who were really interested in finding out what was going on nationally," he said. "We're just trying to fill in the gaps."

Chhotani said the Whitehead Medical Society wants to hold a few more forums throughout the semester, focusing on different aspects of health care reform.

Oberlander said he hopes the forums continue.

"There is no more important issue in the vision of the United States than what to do with the medical system," he said. "For medical students, it's going to change their lives."