IU Med School Leading ‘Transformational’ Program
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA new $46 million program spearheaded by the Indiana University School of Medicine is taking on the lofty goal of improving health care while lowering costs. The Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network involves training and deploying "quality improvement advisors" to transform the way 10 million patients are cared for by 11,500 medical professionals at hospitals throughout Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. The network is a collaboration among nearly three dozen university and state-connected partners designed to reduce unnecessary visits and testing, while potentially saving $1 billion.
The program involves more than 50 advisors. IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science Chief Operating Officer Malaz Boustani says the effort will tackle issues facing the "rapidly-changing" health care system. He says it will provide practitioners "personalized and locally sensitive tools" to accomplish its goals. IU says the program will focus on incorporating three key approaches to improve care for conditions including high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, depression and diabetes management:
- Implementation science to develop tools, process and strategies for rapid implementation of evidence based medicine into the local real world.
- Lean and Six Sigma process improvement tools.
- Patient-centric, personalized population health management.
The Great Lakes network is part of the $685 million Transforming Clinical Practices Initiative from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Twenty-nine organizations received funding nationwide.
You can read more about the program by clicking here.
IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science Chief Operating Officer Malaz Boustani says the effort is moving rapidly.