and dr. cohen is a senior research fellow for russian and eurasian studies and international energy security, peter is in the asian studies center, their introductions will occur later in the program. opening our program is hallandale who serves as director of the douglass and sarah allyson center for foreign policy studies and she is also deputy director of the katherine ann shebly: davis institute. she is a media fellow at the hoover stanford university, serves on the board of visitors on the level of journalism and a georgetown, the center for free inquiry and hanover college in indiana and business for diplomatic action. she is also a member of the council on foreign relations. please join me in welcoming hallandale. [applause] >> thank you, john, and thank you to all of you for being here today. we are going to have a very interesting program. we tried this video link-up with moscow just once before, this scenario, and i think we are improving on a technique so i think this morning we should h

dr. regina benjamin, a doctor from the gulf coast. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth coheno her community? >> she certainly is. she has been serving the underserved and the uninsured in the gulf coast for many years. let's take a look at what we know about the doctor here. first of all, she received her m.d. from the university of alabama. she founded a rural health clinic in alabama, which she had to rebuild several times because of katrina. also the first african-american to be a board member of the american medical association, also the first person under 40 to have that position, and she also was named a mcarthur foundation fellow. it's also interesting, she was the first female and the first african-american to be head of the alabama medical association. john? >> traditionally the surgeon general hasn't had a big hand in the formation of health care policy. do we think in this administration it might be a little bit different that relationship? might she, in fact, have a hand in health care reform? >> right, we're told this time it will be different and she will actual

couldn't wear them to the gym or listen to headphones but a few months ago cohen read about the lyric hearing aid designed by dr one of the pioneers of the cochlear implant and immediately made an appointment. >> how does the left side freely? >> fine. >> reporter: unlike traditional ones that go over the hear exposed to wind and other noise, the lyric is fitted inside the ear canal next to the eardrum. it's smaller than a dime basically just a miniature microphone, a microchip and tiny speaker wrapped in a small layer of foam all of which take advantage of the natural shape of the ear to collect and process sound. and because it's battery and microchip are so deep in the here it's also invisible. >> so many people who could benefit so greatly from hearing aids won't wear them because of the cosmetic issue. but suddenly when they're given a hearing aid that no one can see they become addicted to it and a love it. >> reporter: because the device has an internal battery, patients visit the office every two or three months to have the entire device replaced. >> clear and crisper than before. >> it sounds like it's

dr. benjamin's back story. now our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins me with me on that. she does have an interesting background. >> she's an md and mba, her md from morehouse, university and also her mba from tulane university and she started a rural health care clinic in the gulf coast of alabama. she also sat on the board of the american medical association and was the first person under the a.j. of 40 on the board so here you see the degrees and health clinic she started and won the nelson mandela award for health and human rights and is also a macarthur fellow and has an interesting background and we talked about how she had to rebuild her clinic after katrina. >> you brought up her interesting point about the two interesting degrees and our sanjay gupta was up for this position as you know and he was maybe concerned about not being able to practice medicine as much as he wanted to. it was going to be more of an administrative position. the surgeon general is very important, but it is very much of kind of a leadership, administrative role. it's not like you're going

cohen: i appreciate mr. yarmuth bringing this topic and joining dr. kagen and my colleague, mr. sarbanes, and miss tsongas who was with us. i look at the encryption over the speaker's chair here in the united states capitol, it's daniel webster. daniel webster says, let us bring the resources of our nation, our institutions together and may we do something here that is worth remembering and something worthwhile that may be remembered. i can't think of anything that would be more worthwhile than daniel webster's spirit that we could do to have people remember this 111th congress than to provide health care that's been sought for so many generations. i think back to harry truman who really had this original concept and wanted to see national health care. you think about what mr. yarmuth talked about, the only industrialized nation on the earth that does not have health care for its people. it's the greatest country on the face of the earth, but we don't provide health care. that's somehow an omission that this country has overlooked. dr. king would certainly be in feafer of such a