Watch: The future of health care in the Rockies

On February 25, Axios Denver reporters Alayna Alvarez and John Frank hosted a virtual event on the future of health care in Denver, featuring Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Denver Health chief medical officer Dr. Connie Savor Price.

Sen. Bennett discussed the critical need for more investment in public health infrastructure as well as shifting attitudes towards health care in the U.S.

• On being prepared for the next public health emergency: "The United States was not well prepared to deal with this pandemic, and we won't be well prepared to deal with the next one unless we begin to invest in our public health infrastructure again."
• On how the needle has moved on American health care: "I don't think there was as much support [during the Obama administration] as there is today for universal health care today. I think there's enormous support for universal health care."

Dr. Savor Price discussed the impact of the pandemic on health care professionals across the state, as well as what to anticipate in the coming months.

• How health care professionals have adapted to the constraints of COVID-19: "Early on, we had to defer a lot of elective work and decrease our clinic capacity...so we had to get creative about how we get patients in. Many of us now are well versed and much more advanced in our capability to deliver medicine through either telephone or video conferencing."
• How telemedicine is especially helpful with mental health treatment: "I think the next pandemic we're going to be dealing with is a mental health pandemic and we need to be really prepared to respond to that. That's one of the good things about telemedicine, is that is also a service that makes access to mental health services more readily available."

Axios Vice President Yolanda Brignoni hosted a View from the Top segment with Dr. Hala Sabry to discuss the founder of Physician Moms Group, an online community of 115,000 physicians who discuss the challenges of working in medicine.

• On the long-term impact of Physician Moms Group: "Over the last six years, we grew from 20 girls to 115,000 people, basically starting a revolution in medicine of what it means to be a woman in medicine and also addressing really hard topics like burnout and the systemic oppression of health care, the institution on the doctors...it's definitely grown over the last six years, not only a number but also in our mission."

Thank you Facebook for sponsoring this event.