Health Services Research Offers Lessons for Ailing Health Care System; Research Meeting to Deliver Research Behind the Rhetoric

6/10/2002

From: Hollis Hope, 202-292-6741 Kari Root, 202-292-6778 both of the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy

WASHINGTON, June 10 -- Health services research takes center stage June 23-25, 2002, at the Hilton Washington (1919 Connecticut Ave., NW) as some 2,000 researchers and policymakers converge on the city. This Annual Research Meeting of the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy will highlight the latest research in the field and its implications for the national health care policy debate. Media are admitted free of charge and may register on site.

"This meeting comes at a time when rising health care costs may once again be pushing quality of care and access to the bottom of our nation's health care agenda," remarked Elizabeth A. McGlynn, chair of the 2002 meeting. "Health services research-a term not on the tongue of most Americans-offers the tools and insights needed to address cost, access, and quality problems simultaneously. We need to know what works and what doesn't so that we can translate what we learn from our best research into actions to improve care for all Americans."

Donald M. Berwick, a national leader in improving health care quality through education and research, will open the conference at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 24, with the keynote address, "Implementing the 21st Century Health Care Chassis." Berwick is president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of health care systems.

Other invited presenters include former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley and three former heads of the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, Bruce Vladeck, and Gail Wilensky. Also presenting will be such luminaries as Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton University; Mark McClellan, President's Council of Economic Advisors; David Lawrence, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.; and pollster Robert Blendon of Harvard University.

Sample Sessions:

-- Fall & Rise of the Public Health System will examine the world of public health post-September 11. Panelists include Mohammad Akhter of the American Public Health Association; Thomas Burke of Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health; and Ivan Walks formerly with the D.C. Department of Health.

-- Work Environments Matter: Nurse, Physician and Patient Satisfaction will unveil results from a national study of physician-hospital integration, and new papers on the dissatisfaction of nurses, what's ailing hospitals, and doctors on the fault line.

-- Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Ads, Demand for Health Care and Drug Benefit Plans will showcase original research and experience on the effects of DTC ads on consumer demand, physician prescribing, and drug benefit design.

-- Medical Technology: Where Is It Taking Us? What's It Going to Cost? will focus on emerging medical technologies and explore their potential impact on the costs of health care, specifically the Medicare Program.

Meeting participants can choose among some 70 sessions presenting the latest research findings in 13 major areas of health services research and policy: (1) Behavioral Health, (2) Child Health, (3) Coverage/Insurance, (4) Disparities in Health & Health Care, (5) International, (6) Managed Care & Markets, (7) Management/ Organization, (8) Medicare, (9) Pharmaceuticals & Emerging Technologies, (10) Post-Acute & Long-Term Care, (11) Quality, (12) Women's Health, and (13) Workers & Workplaces.

Webcasting: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation will provide webcasts of five selected sessions. Webcasts will be available on www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/academy/24jun02, a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

------ The Academy supports the fields of health services research and health policy through the transfer of relevant information between and across the research and policy arenas. For up-to-date information on the Annual Research Meeting, including the full meeting program, please visit the Academy's website at http://www.academyhealth.org/2002.