Peter Hasselbacher, MD, M.D.

Peter Hasselbacher, MD (1997-98) Peter retired from the University of Louisville as Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Assistant Vice President for Government Affairs. He received his BA in biology with high honors at Wesleyan University in 1968 and his MD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1972 with the Roche Award and Janeway Prizes. He remained at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center as intern and resident in internal medicine, moving on to a rheumatology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania where he joined the faculty in 1976. Peter followed the traditional (for that time) academic track of clinical service, research, and teaching. He held subsequent faculty appointments at Dartmouth (1978), and the University of Louisville (1984) where he joined as a tenured Professor of Medicine and Division Chief of Rheumatology –later also as Executive Vice-Chairman of Medicine. He is boarded in Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, Geriatrics, Diagnostic Laboratory Medicine, and Medical Management where he earned an additional credential of Certified Physician Executive and Vanguard Member.

His research interests involved mechanisms of crystal-associated arthritis and inflammation leading to 55 publications, and 46 published abstracts of scientific presentations. His academic hobby was "how joints work" and he edited a well-received book: The Biology of the Joint (1981). He presented numerous "Meet the Professor" sessions for both of his major clinical organizations. He wrote multiple chapters on these subjects for textbooks of medicine and rheumatology. Peter served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Rheumatology, Arthritis and Rheumatism, American Family Physician, and The Kentucky Journal for the Kentucky Center for Public Issues (KCPI). Peter held many more offices in local, national, and governmental organizations than he should have, but these gave him a breath of experience that informed his patient advocacy and healthcare reform efforts.

As a practicing rheumatologist, most of his patients had pre-existing and often disabling disease. America's non-healthcare system was not serving patients well and he felt the need to learn more about the evolving health insurance and managed care environment of the 1980s. His first sabbatical took him to Kentucky's capital in Frankfurt, where he worked in Governor Paul Paton's Health Cabinet during the interval of Clinton's healthcare reform initiatives. In 1993 he spent an eye-opening year as Vice President for Medical Affairs and Medical Director of a new managed care company in Louisville owned by Blue Cross and three local hospitals. On a subsequent KCPI fellowship, he returned to Frankfurt to participate as an advisor in Kentucky's transition to Medicaid managed care.

Peter's RWJ Health Policy Fellowship was a definitive turning point in his career trajectory. He joined the staff of the Majority Senate Finance Committee, then chaired by Senator William Roth, and was involved on issues of Medicare coverage, payment for clinical research activity, private contracting, and more. This was the year of the Patient's Bill of Rights during which Peter covered the majority reform caucus and learned more than he wanted to know about how legislation evolves. Following his fellowship, Peter returned to UofL to work as Vice President of Government Affairs. Peter kept his hand in Washington and Frankfort as a lobbyist for medical schools, teaching hospitals, and higher education. He served on the joint Council on Governmental Affairs of the AAMC and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Universities, rising to chairmanship of that group in 2002.

Following his retirement from University life he founded the non-profit Kentucky Health Policy Institute as a forum to advocate broadly as a patient advocate in his own voice. He became a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors and is often asked for opinion or insight into a variety of healthcare matters. Beginning in 2020 he covered extensively the status of the Covid pandemic in Kentucky until available state and national data dried up and blew away. Now, more or less fully retired from university life, he reverts to his childhood pleasures of exploring the countryside on his bicycle and enjoying his time with family and friends.

Of all the recognitions he has been given, the one of which he is most proud is the "People’s Choice" award in 1997 from his colleagues at the Gallup Leadership Institute in Omaha where his RWJ class spent an off-site experience. The assignment was to write and present a visionary statement. His reflected a personal response to the health policy issues debated during the 105th Congress. His Vision of Health Care for the Next Millennium was subsequently published in JAMA. Now, nearly a quarter-century later, Peter struggles to find much movement in the direction of which he dreamed. Perhaps it was all a hallucination!