The Institute is pleased to offer and collaborate on seminars, university-wide and across the nation, that bring high visibility domestic policymakers together to address complex and timely policy concerns confronting the nation.

NEWS:

Creating the Virtual Integrated Health Care Delivery System
by Ken Thorpe and Lydia Ogden

One emerging model is to link provider practices with community-based care coordination teams (community health teams, or CHTs). CHTs apply key clinical functions and processes used by larger successful physician group practices and integrated plans and replicate them in less resourced and organized settings. Teams include care coordinators; nutritionists; behavioral and mental health specialists; nurses and nurse practitioners; and social, public health, and community health workers. These trained resources already exist in many communities, working for home health agencies, hospitals, health plans, and community-based health organizations. To better leverage their systemic impact, CHTs are needed to work seamlessly with small provider practices. In combination, CHTs and provider practices could meet the requirements of a medical home as defined by the NCQA.

Read the entire article in the Health Affairs Blog:
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2009/10/05/creating-the-virtual-integrated-delivery-system/



Emory Researchers to Evaluate Childhood Obesity Interventions

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, has selected Emory University’s Institute for Advanced Policy Solutions to conduct a process and outcomes evaluation of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthcare Initiative, launched earlier this year.

This is the nation’s first comprehensive research study evaluating clinical interventions for childhood obesity. The study will help inform the science base and uncover effective clinical solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic.

“In the past 25 years, childhood obesity has tripled,” says study principal investigator Kenneth E. Thorpe, PhD, Robert W. Woodruff professor and chair, Department of Health Policy & Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, and director of the Emory Institute for Advanced Policy Solutions. “As obesity rates have climbed, so too have rates of associated health conditions. By analyzing the implementation of clinical processes and the health outcomes delivered, we will be able to determine the most effective method for clinically combating childhood obesity.”

Read the entire news release at:
http://whsc.emory.edu/home/news/releases/2009/10/childhood-obesity-interventions.html

Emory Experts on Health Reform

It's broken, and it needs fixing. That much everyone can agree on when it comes to health care in the United States. Much of the conversation about reform centers on cost, but access and quality of care are key factors too.

The challenges range from lack of universal coverage to unequal access to care. The U.S. system has fragmented and uncoordinated care with wide regional variations. Its payment incentives fail to reward for good outcomes. Vested interest groups vie for their share of the trillion-dollar health care pie.

In the midst of national debates on how to approach the challenges, Emory experts are adding their voices, testifying before Congress, drafting reform policies, and hosting meetings of the best minds to discuss reform. How would they fix the dysfunctional system?

Read more in "Words of Wisdom" from the Summer 2009 issue of Emory Health. Emory experts, including Michael Johns, Kenneth Thorpe and Kathleen Adams share their approaches to fixing the U.S. health care system. http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/health-sciences/emory-health/summer09/words-of-wisdom.html


Economic Impact of Obesity

If the prevalence of obesity were the same today as in 1987, health care spending in the United States would be approximately $200 billion less each year, according to the report “Weighty Matters:  How Obesity Drives Poor Health and Health Spending in the U.S.”  The report — authored by Emory University’s Kenneth Thorpe, PhD; Lydia Ogden, MA, MPP; and Katya Galactionova, MA — was released May 7, 2009 at the National Press Club in Washington during the National Business Group on Health’s briefing on obesity.

In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than one-third of adults in the United States, over 72 million people, were obese.  The report also notes that in the past 25 years, childhood obesity has tripled. As obesity rates have climbed, so too have rates of associated health conditions.

To read the entire report, visit the Research & Publications page.