WASHINGTON—Three medical professionals joined The Heritage Foundation as visiting experts in health policy who will continue to help the organization respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following additions include:

• Dr. Daniel Johnson, Jr., MD, FACR joins as a visiting fellow. Johnson, a diagnostic radiologist in Metairie, Louisiana, is a former president of the American Medical Association as well as a former president of the World Medical Association. He is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology and has previously served as a visiting fellow in health policy for Heritage.
   
• Amy Anderson, DNP, RN, joins as a visiting fellow. Anderson, a registered nurse who holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice, is a professor in the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the School of Medicine at Texas Christian University as well as the founder of Global Nurse Consultants Alliance. She is a former graduate fellow in health policy at Heritage.
   
• Dr. Kevin Pham, MD, MBA, joins as a visiting policy analyst. Pham, a medical doctor, is a former graduate fellow in health policy at Heritage.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson, Anderson and Pham have provided analysis and commentary on the coronavirus pandemic for Heritage and its National Coronavirus Recovery Commission.

“Daniel, Amy and Kevin have been instrumental in helping Heritage respond to the pandemic with policy that supports health care professionals and patients,” said Marie Fishpaw, director of domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation. “They’ll continue to ground our efforts in the latest medical insights so that our recommendations help preserve lives and livelihoods.”

“I am very pleased to return to Heritage because of its culture of excellence and thoughtful application of conservative solutions to vexing problems in general, and health system reform in particular,” Johnson said. “Establishing a market approach to the health care system will bring more transparency that results in lower costs and increased quality for patients.”

“I am honored to be joining The Heritage Foundation working to advance public policies focused on traditional values, liberty, limited government, and free enterprise,” said Anderson, whose clinical background is in the operating room where she received enhanced training in infection control. “Identifying opportunities to return choice and control of the health system to health professionals, patients, and families should be a goal of our elected officials.”

“Our country faced an impending doctor shortage prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Pham said. "But the breathtaking spread of disease has only clarified the need for conservative solutions from Heritage that address the federal bureaucratic burdens placed on providers that have wrenched our doctors' attention away from the patient and toward their desks and their computers."