Frameworks for Transforming Systems and Improving Health Outcomes

GIH Disparities Audioconference Series

When:

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern / 1:00 p.m. Central / Noon Mountain / 11:00 a.m. Pacific

Who:

• Steve Galen, Executive Director, Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County
• Margaret O’Bryon, President and CEO, Consumer Health Foundation
• John Whittington, Faculty, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

What:

Significant work is underway through health reform to improve access, cost, quality, and, ultimately, health outcomes for people in this country. Community-based health care providers are also experimenting with real-time, practice-based changes that show tremendous potential for improving outcomes. To further these advancements, a collaborative infrastructure for promoting learning is needed. Such a system could be used to rapidly identify, evaluate, and promote diffusion of innovation across an array of critical stakeholders, including patients, providers, payers, and community-based entities.

This audioconference provided an overview of the Triple Aim framework for integrative and transformational change, which was launched under the former leadership of Don Berwick at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. This framework, recently introduced at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, seeks to optimize the experiences of individuals, and the health and per capita costs for populations. Domestic and international health providers/payers at the forefront of transforming the health system have adopted Triple Aim, which offers an innovative and adaptive construct for implementing health reform at local, state, and regional levels.

On the call, speakers also discussed how the establishment of Regional Learning Centers may be especially useful in supporting improvements in the health of low-income, diverse patient populations.