Fighting for Better Healthcare David Grande has been helping advocate for more access and higher quality healthcare at the city and state level

As a doctor, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the former President of the American Medical Student Association and a graduate from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton, Dr. David Grande blended his passion for medicine and public policy into a career working towards improving health care at every level.  

David is a general internist who currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last several years, he’s been actively involved in pushing for both national and local health care reform.

Healthcare in Philadelphia

He has worked with the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health to develop a plan to improve access to services and overall public health in response to a voter-initiated charter change. He was also a healthy policy co-chair for Michael Nutter’s successful run for Mayor in 2007, as well as playing an official advisory role during the transition.

“During the campaign, we put forth a vision in the city that has been embraced around strengthening the health department, including its political profile, its ability to speak out on issues, and is ability to innovate and lead policy planning. We capitalized on the mayor’s interest to put public health map on the back in Philadelphia,” says David.

Most recently, he’s helping lead research around several public policy issues, including how to increase quality and alleviate disparities in access across the city.

Advocating for National Reform

At the national level, David served a full-time, one-year term as the president of the American Medical Student Association working in their Washington-area office on issues related to access to health care and health disparities.

He is also a co-founder of the National Physician’s Alliance (NPA), a national organization of doctor’s committed to advocating for a equitable, affordable, high quality health care for all people.

“Our goal is to increase the number of doctors engaged in this issue, getting them active in physician advocacy, and getting their voices and stories heard as a part of the national discussion on health care reform.

The NPA has been an active organization at the national level helping raise awareness and push for sweeping health care reform. They are currently running a campaign called “Secure Health Care for All”, designed to engage doctor’s to advocate for universal health care.

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In 2006, David was a part of the inaugural class of CPL Pennsylvania Political Leaders Fellows. David says, “CPL helped me think strategically for myself and the organization’s I’m involved in. Understanding how my activities can be the most effective was the best part of the program."

You can also read an op-ed that David wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer.