Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

“The causes of obesity are varied and complex, but the lack of daily physical activity is an important factor.”

“I wanted to go from seeing the individual patient to seeing the plural - the whole population as a market. You want to see the larger population, yet at the same time you need to understand the impact of decisions on individuals.”

“I start my day by trying to be healthy and exercising and thinking about and reading about the challenges. I live the mission that way.”

“Increasingly we know that we're going to have multiple medical conditions, and the person who's got the greatest incentive to manage those conditions is the patient him or herself.”

“I had an interest in health policy and a realization that, as an academic physician, one of the things you're always looking to do is to have your clinical interests and your scholarly interests overlap and reinforce one another.”

“Traditional nursing facilities are sterile institutions rather than homes - which is why many Americans do not want to live in one or want this as their only option for themselves or their family members.”

“Higher costs naturally translate into fewer employers offering insurance coverage, and fewer employees accepting it, even when it is offered.”

“Electronic medical records are, in a lot of ways, I think the aspect of technology that is going to revolutionize the way we deliver care. And it's not just that we will be able to collect information, it's that everyone involved in the healthcare enterprise will be able to use that information more effectively.”

“I've been described as impatient.”

“What happened to the tradition of walking to school? The simple answer is change. Change in traffic patterns and street planning that have made school routes less pedestrian-friendly.”

“Once I started working with older people, I realized how much I enjoyed the intellectual challenge of taking care of patients who have multiple, complex medical problems.”

“I always knew I wanted to be a doctor, but I also knew that being a doctor meant more than treating just the patient in front of you.”

“Safe Routes to School is one with great potential to get children walking and biking to school again. The program uses federal grants to make road and sidewalk repairs aimed at getting kids to school safely on foot or bicycle. The money also supports efforts to get the community, school officials and others involved.”

“I tell every young woman who asks me, be very careful about your choice of spouse. If you don't have a supportive spouse, it will be difficult to take on so many things.”

“Progress among the youngest children is especially important because we know that preventing obesity at an early age helps young people maintain a healthy weight into adulthood.”

“The people that you work with, the organizations that are committed to the same objectives. If they know that you're in it together, and you're working towards the same objectives, and you agree on how to do more with less, you can actually have a greater impact.”

“It isn't unusual to see children climb into a car every morning to be ferried to the front door of a school that's just a few blocks away.”

“The things that are going to actually help you or me stay healthy are not necessarily the things that happen inside a doctor's office. They're the things that allow us to choose healthy lifestyles on a day-by-day basis.”

“My mother was a pediatrician, and she kept busy hours. I learned from her you could pack a lot into the day. Every minute had to count, and multitasking was a given.”

“American healthcare faces a crisis in quality. There is a dangerous divide between the potential for the high level of quality care that our health system promises and the uneven quality that it actually delivers.”