2013 News & Events

New Aligning Forces for Quality toolkit:  Engaging Patients in Improving Ambulatory Care
Patients can be a powerful resource for primary care teams looking to better the care they provide.  Their perspectives on what they see and experience within the clinical setting can provide invaluable information to drive change.   This new resource from the RWJF Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative investigates three AF4Q communities deeply immersed in patient engagement:  Maine, Oregon, and Humboldt County, CA.
 
This toolkit includes getting started resources (charters, bylaws, mission statements), information on staff and patient roles (including materials such as "establishing a patient engagement 'check-in' call schedule"), patient recruitment methods, and a Consumer Engagement & Patient Centered Care Resource List.
  
  
Chronic illness now one of the leading global disease burdens
Twenty years ago the Global Disease Burden of Disease (GBD) Study was first published.  Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the primary goal of this work is to provide evidence for policy making and planning. 

In 1990, the leading cause of the world’s health burden was premature mortality.  2010's GBD data show that disability now makes up the largest portion of the disease burden, and it is caused by a relatively small subset of mostly chronic illnesses.  In the new study, GBD researchers looked at more than 300 diseases, injuries and risk factors and found that just 50 ailments account for 78% of the burden.   In both the 1990 and 2010 GBD studies, ischemic heart disease and stroke remained the two greatest causes of death, but all other rankings in the top 10 causes have shifted, and now include chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. 

The 2010 study authors note that health is about more than avoiding death: these data show that people are living longer, with more complex health problems.  This report shows that health priorities have shifted from improving survival to keeping people healthy as they live into older age with multiple chronic illnesses.  The data also point to the need for evidence to help create, implement, and sustain effective and affordable ways to for deal with the growing impact of chronic illness across the world. 

Since its launch in 2001, the Improving Chronic Illness Care program has provided one such evidence-based strategy:  the Chronic Care Model.   The MacColl Center remains committed to our work on improving chronic illness care both in the United States and internationally.


Coach Medical Home curriculum now available
Practice facilitation (coaching) and learning communities are two proven clinical improvement strategies that can successfully pave the way to medical home status.   Designed to help further implement the medical home within the safety net, Qualis Health and the MacColl Center for Healthcare Innovation with support from The Commonwealth Fund have created the Coach Medical Home online curriculum.
 
Containing real-world, real-time tools and resources, “Coach Medical Home: A Practice Facilitator’s Guide to Medical Home Transformation” offers a unique approach to achieving patient-centered medical home (PCMH) recognition.  Launched in January 2013 and created for practice facilitators, this curriculum is web-based and freely available. 
 
Not just another practice coaching manual, Coach Medical Home draws on lessons learned from practice coaches who have worked in 65 safety net practices across five U.S. regions in the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative (SNMHI).  Eight concepts have guided these coaches in their SNMHI work:  engaged leadership, quality improvement strategy, empanelment, continuous and team-based healing relationships, patient-centered interactions, organized evidence-based care, enhanced access, and care coordination.
 
Building on the foundation of these eight change concepts, the Coach Medical Home curriculum consists of six modules:
  1. Getting Started – selecting sites and structuring your intervention
  2. Recognition and Payment – articulating the business case
  3. Sequencing – outlines the 8 SNMHI change concepts
  4. Measurement Matters – strategies for assessing progress
  5. Learning Communities – sharing learning across sites
  6. Sustainability – spreading and sustaining change
Each module contains action steps for coaches to implement these changes, and provides tips and links to tools designed for facilitators.  Modules also include links to a PDF handbook and companion PowerPoint presentation that can be easily printed. 
 
The goal of Coach Medical Home is to offer any coach in any setting in any region a support for their work with teams in medical home transformation.   
 
Improving chronic disease care across the Americas
MacColl Director Michael Parchman recently attended the CARMEN chronic care working group meeting in Washington, DC to discuss strategies for delivering high-quality care to chronically ill populations across the Americas. 
 
CARMEN is a Spanish language acronym (Conjunto de Acciones para la Reducción Multifactorial de las Enfermedades No transmisibles) that translates to “an Initiative for Integrated Noncommunicable Disease Prevention in the Americas”.  It is an initiative of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) as well as part of the Global Forum on Non-Communicable Disease Prevention.  
 
CARMEN work group members met for two days developing a set of evidence-based recommendations that will guide technical cooperation with PAHO states in their efforts to improve non-communicable (chronic) disease care.   The final report is forthcoming.
 
The Global Forum encourages the development of national integrated NCD prevention and control strategies and programs including community-based initiatives, surveillance and demonstration projects. It also supports regional networks through collaboration and partnership with government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and research and academic institutions.

 
Chronic Illness Solutions CD series now complete with "Transforming Primary Care"
We have completed the third, and last, CD in our Chronic Illness Solutions series: "Transforming Primary Care:  What Works and What's Next".  If you would like to receive a copy via U.S. Mail, please use the link below.  We ship single copies of this CD only, and encourage its duplication for personal or non-commercial purposes.  Kindly include your physical mailing address in your message.