BrightTALK Partners with The Center for Health Affairs and CHAMPS Healthcare to Launch Global Healthcare Initiative

BrightTALK, the virtual event platform that brings professionals and businesses together to learn and grow, in partnership with The Center for Health Affairs and CHAMPS, is launching the COVID-19 Leadership Series, a virtual initiative that delivers thought-provoking commentary and insights from a renowned group of global healthcare experts. The series begins on September 29 and will continue through 2021. The COVID-19 Leadership Series marks the start of a global collaboration between BrightTALK, The Center for Health Affairs and CHAMPS, which have joined forces to create a virtual event program that fosters conversation throughout the healthcare supply chain and continuum of care, from biotech, biomed, pharma and payers, to government, policy, associations, providers and patients. The series opener on September 29, "COVID-19’s Role in Federal Policy and the Upcoming Election," will feature a dynamic discussion between Brian Lane, President and CEO, The Center for Health Affairs, and Blair Childs, Senior Vice President for Public Affairs at Premier Inc., on the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election and how the policy platforms of the two major parties will help shape the future of the healthcare supply chain. Childs will also address lessons learned during COVID-19, the current need for supply chain and health data advancements as well as recommendations for consumers and leaders to help make positive change for the future. "BrightTALK is committed to connecting the global healthcare industry around COVID-19 and beyond," said Val-Pierre Genton, Vice President of Corporate Development at BrightTALK. "It’s our mission to convene and lead virtual conversations with global healthcare professionals from IT, operations, data, supply chain, administration, management, research and development, and clinical care." "Since its founding over 100 years ago, The Center for Health for Health Affairs and CHAMPS has worked to convene, influence, educate and innovate on a local, national and global scale," said Lane. "The COVID-19 Leadership Series gives us the opportunity to make an impact and hear relevant lessons, insights and perspectives from global healthcare and industry experts. Our initial programming will focus on COVID-19, to accelerate knowledge sharing in key sectors of healthcare during and after the crisis. This will then evolve into an empowered global community of healthcare professionals who are connected through topical webinars, video talks and virtual events to drive visionary, sustainable and transformative innovation." Over the course of the next several months, the Leadership Series will feature a prestigious line-up of speakers discussing healthcare’s most pressing issues, including COVID-19 and the impact on cancer care, the race to a vaccine, the future of COVID-19 care, community health, and social determinants of health. Speakers will include:

• Dr. Akram Boutros, president and CEO, The MetroHealth System

• Dr. Adam Myers, chief of population health and director, Cleveland Clinic Community Care

• Dr. Heidi Gullet, medical director, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and associate director and professor at the Case Western School of Medicine

• Serban Negoita, Ph.D, Chief of the Data Quality, Analysis, and Interpretation Branch (DQAIB), National Cancer Institute

• Oguz Alagoz, Ph.D, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Carol Santalucia, director of business development in the Office of Patient Experience, The Cleveland Clinic

• Mike Eidsaune, CEO and co-founder, Care.ly

• Delanea Davis, CEO and co-founder, Cloud 9 Online

• Tim Bugg, President and CEO, Capstone Health Alliance

"BrightTALK is the world’s largest global B2B platform for virtual events, webinars and live video presentations and has been instrumental in connecting industries such as IT and Financial Services as they converged and modernized in the past 15 years," said Genton. "We are very excited about connecting our vibrant community of more than 10 million professionals with the global healthcare market and look forward to working with cornerstone partners such as The Center for Health Affairs and CHAMPS, along with vendors and speakers who will help to do the same in this fast-changing industry." BrightTALK is actively supporting its global community to win the fight against COVID-19. In just the past several months, its platform distributed 600 free talks and virtual events on COVID-19 viewed by over 200,000 professionals. A recent talk featured Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director. "Our goal is to amplify health by becoming the No. 1 destination for free online talks and virtual events for global healthcare and life science professionals," said Genton. Register for the upcoming COVID-19 Leadership Series today. About The Center for Health Affairs: With a rich history as the nation's first regional hospital association, The Center for Health Affairs has served as the collective voice of Northeast Ohio hospitals for more than 100 years. The Center continues the legacy of its founders, working collaboratively to increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery, providing insightful healthcare information to the public and undertaking initiatives aimed at improving the health of the community.  About BrightTALK: BrightTALK brings professionals and businesses together to learn and grow. More than 10 million professionals engage with 125,000+ free talks and 1,000 online summits to discover new technologies, learn from trusted experts, and enhance their careers. Thousands of businesses use BrightTALK's AI-powered content and demand marketing platform to grow revenue. BrightTALK was founded in 2002 and has raised more than $30 million in venture capital. Clients include Corning, Reed Elsevier, Beckham Coulter, Healthline, JP Morgan, BNY Mellon, Cisco and Amazon Web Services.