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Elizabeth Cohen          

Senior Correspondent for the CNN Health, Medical, & Wellness Unit

Elizabeth Cohen is Senior Medical Correspondent for CNN's Health, Medical and Wellness unit, responsible for breaking medical news and health consumer reporting across CNN platforms. In this role, she covers a wide range of health-related topics, from breakthrough medical discoveries to public health crises, communicating complex medical information in a clear and accessible manner.

Throughout her career, Cohen has demonstrated a passion for investigative journalism, holding those in power accountable and advocating for public health awareness. Her investigative pieces include: “Escape from the Mayo Clinic,” a series on a family forced to extract their teenage daughter from the renowned clinic after doctors refused to discharge or transfer her; a report on Florida Department of Health’s transfer of 13,000 very sick children from the state’s Children’s Medical Services to other Medicaid plans not offering their specialized care; and the exclusive story of Bayer Pharmaceuticals paying doctors millions of dollars to push a questionable birth control device.

Her book, “The Empowered Patient: How to Get the Right Diagnosis, Buy the Cheapest Drugs, Beat Your Insurance Company, and Get the Best Medical Care Every Time," encourages consumers to take charge of their medical care.

Cohen is the recipient of the Outstanding Alumna Award from Columbia College in New York City, where she received a bachelor's degree in history, and the Distinguished Alumni Award at Boston University where she earned a master's degree in public health.

Speech Topics


The Ultimate Balancing Act: Happy Working Motherhood

If you're finding it more challenging than ever to juggle life's demands, you're not alone. Many people have asked CNN senior medical correspondent and speaker Elizabeth Cohen, the mother of four young girls, how she does it all. With charm and humor, Cohen helps parents figure out this ultimate balancing act. It's easy to get lost in the chaos of today's fast-paced world - Cohen will help you sort it out and become a happy mom and successful professional.

Navigating Healthcare Reform

Our complex new healthcare system presents challenges for companies, insurers, physicians, and patients. CNN senior medical correspondent and speaker Elizabeth Cohen explains the effects of the new law and how each sector will be impacted. Cohen, an expert on healthcare reform who's covered The Affordable Care Act from the legislative debate in 2009 to current implementation, has conducted hundreds of investigative interviews and can synthesize and distill the act's thousands of pages into pragmatic steps you need to take as reform is put in place.

The Empowered Patient

CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is passionate about helping doctors and patients navigate our imperfect medical system. Today, doctors are more rushed than ever, and nurses often have too many patients in their care, making medical errors more prevalent. Cohen, author of the The Empowered Patient and host of the show 25 Shocking Medical Mistakes, explains how patients can take control of their healthcare and become advocates for themselves and their family. Using her own personal stories as illustration, Cohen explains the basic skills needed for achieving the best medical care.

Pleasing patients in the new health care world

What do patients want? This question becomes more important than ever under Obamacare, which financially rewards doctors and hospitals for making patients happy. Based on hundreds of interviews with Washington insiders, advocates, and patients, Elizabeth Cohen, author of The Empowered Patient, shows how pleasing patients can powerfully affect your bottom line. A 20-year veteran of CNN, Cohen hones in on the patient’s perception of care, highlighting which areas of quality and safety matter most.

Future trends in healthcare

What will healthcare look like in the future? How will decision making shift between doctors, insurance companies, and patients? Elizabeth Cohen reveals that everything from a hospital stay to a check up will change in the future because of five trends: patient empowerment, technology, value-based billing, social media, and increased transparency for cost and outcomes. Cohen examines how these trends interact to affect both patients and providers - in fact, to seismically alter the way healthcare will be delivered and received.

News


Heart doctors outraged Florida dumps hospital standards after big gifts to GOP
The state of Florida is putting thousands of children with heart defects at risk, a group of cardiac doctors say, because of a change in policy that came after Tenet Healthcare contributed $200,000 to Florida Republicans.

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