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_____________________________________ Over the past 21 years, AcademyHealth’s Annual Research Meeting (ARM) has evolved from being a forum solely for researchers into a conference where investigators, policymakers, practitioners, business decision makers, and others share ideas about how to move research into action and improve the U.S. health care system. The 2004 ARM, held June 6-8 in San Diego, reflected the interests of its diverse attendees. It included a keynote speech on the growing role of the Internet in health care, a chair address about making research relevant to everyday practice, and breakout sessions on the implications of research on critical health policy issues, ranging from Medicare reform to consumer-based care to patient safety and quality. “AcademyHealth is an unusual and distinctive organization, as reflected at this meeting,” said 2004 ARM Conference Chair Sherry Glied, Ph.D., professor of health policy and management at Columbia Univerity’s Mailman School of Public Health. It includes academic researchers and program administrators, she noted, as well as psychologists, economists, Democrats, Republicans, people supportive of a single-payer health care system, and those in favor of health savings accounts. “But all of us came here and were united because we have an interest in understanding and improving the health care system and health care policy in this country.” The conference
has expanded over the years to accommodate the varied information needs
of AcademyHealth’s members and constituents. This year, it featured
50 pre- and post-ARM affiliate meetings, and was the forum at which 10
new interest groups met
for the first time to share information and network around a specific
topic of interest. The ARM agenda captured more than 120 sessions related
to 14 themes, including child health, coverage and access, long-term care,
and workforce issues. In addition, more than 700 individuals presented
their research in poster sessions. Today, people take for granted that health care is an integral part of U.S. policy and politics, and that health research often informs the government’s decisions. Whether the issue is Medicare, the uninsured, or bioterrorism preparedness, health and health care have become central components of our national dialogue. Surprisingly, however, this was not always the case. In a speech introducing the recipients of AcademyHealth’s 2004 distinguished investigator award, Bob Blendon, Ph.D., put the fields of health services research and policy into a historical perspective. “Twenty years ago, there was no field called health policy,” said Blendon, who is a professor of health policy and policy analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health. “The idea that there would be a powerful field that people had to pay attention to did not exist.” He attributes the emergence of health services research and policy in large part to the pioneering work of the two distinguished investigators who were honored at the meeting—Uwe Reinhardt, Ph.D., and Stuart Altman, Ph.D. “For the past two decades, they have been the public face for many in Congress, the media, and the business community.” They were also founders and leaders of the Association for Health Services Research, one of AcademyHealth’s predecessor organizations. Through the vision and hard work of Stuart, Uwe, and other dedicated leaders, AcademyHealth has helped to make health services research alive and relevant to today’s policymakers. As a result, “this field grew, and members of Congress who had never stepped foot near health policy research said this was a very important thing for them to do,” said Blendon. Uwe Reinhardt is the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. Stuart Altman is the Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and a noted economist. “They are true champions,” said AcademyHealth President and CEO David Helms. “We all look up to them as we strive to move research to inform policy and practice.” In addition to the distinguished investigator awards, AcademyHealth recognized other new and veteran research and policy professionals through its awards program. This year, AcademyHealth presented its Alice S. Hersh new investigator award to David Studdert, L.L.B, Sc. D, associate professor of law and public health at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he teaches health law and medical ethics. AcademyHealth’s
dissertation award went to Anita
Tucker, D.B.A., assistant professor of operations and information
management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She completed
her dissertation, “Organizational Learning from Operational Failures,”
at the Harvard Business School in 2003. Finally, the award for best student poster was given to Hongxia Liu, a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing for her poster, “The Effects of Gender and Age on Health-Related Quality of Life and Overall Health in Renal Transplant Recipients.” The role
of computers and information technology (IT) in health care was a recurring
topic of discussion at the meeting. Many of the breakout sessions discussed
how adopting improved IT systems—which incorporate electronic prescribing
or physician decision support, for example—will move our health
care system toward a culture of patient safety that doesn’t currently
exist. There was a general consensus among the meeting participants that IT needed to be part of a well-functioning 21st century health care system. “If you think about bridging that health care chasm between where we are and where we want to be, it’s clear that health information technology is a critical component of that,” said Helen Burstin, M.D., director for the Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. David Blumenthal, M.D., AcademyHealth board chair, expressed a similar sentiment in his chair address. “The development of computerized decision support for physicians to make the optimal use of imaging and other technologies should be the highest possible priority for health services research,” he said. Blumenthal is the director of health policy for Partners HealthCare System and a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In a keynote speech, Vinton Cerf, the senior vice president of technology strategy for MCI, presented a vision for the future in which the Internet and other computer-assisted technologies were fully integrated into health care. This may enable advances that reduce the amount of paperwork in the health care system, improve the likelihood that patients receive appropriate medications and that diseases are detected early, automate data collection in clinical trials, and even assist with surgery. He acknowledged some potential roadblocks, however. “One challenge is creating standards for information capture and exchange in support of health care,” he said. “Creating HIPAA-compliant interventions is another huge challenge.” Now that the fields of health services research and health policy have become mature fields of inquiry, the next step for both disciplines is to develop a shared language. “Right now, researchers and legislators are like Mars and Venus,” said Tallon. “We need to learn how to communicate better health services research to policymakers.” Through the ARM and myriad other initiatives, AcademyHealth is committed to helping its members and constituents reach that goal. “Health services research can make a stronger contribution in health care by placing a greater emphasis on synthesizing information and in translating it for decision makers and administrators,” said Bob Reischauer, Ph.D., AcademyHealth board member and president of The Urban Institute. “That is where AcademyHealth plays a critical role.” Summary prepared by: Christina Folz, AcademyHealth Director of Communications |
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