- ImproveHealthCare.org

Health Policy Education for a New Generation of Physicians

Announcements

Tosteson Lecture Series with Senator Bill Frist, April 29th, 2011

Tosteson Lecture Series with Dr. Mark McClellan, April 21st, 2011

IHC In the News: A study on health policy education in medical schools was recently profiled in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Chapter leaders: If you have not already done so, please take a few minutes to fill our brief chapter survey. Thanks!

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Welcome to ImproveHealthCare.org!

ImproveHealthCare seeks to bring together a community of medical students and professionals interested in health policy and improving quality, expanding access, and lowering disparities in health care. IHC is a student-led initiative started by students at Harvard Medical School who were concerned that medical education did not address these issues, despite their impact on our patients and our practice.

To address these challenges, students worked with faculty mentors to develop a library of cases, which, in part, became integrated into the pre-clinical curriculum at HMS. In addition, we invited experts in health policy to share their insights with students, and have shared videos of their thoughts on this website. We welcome contributions from our chapters to share with the entire IHC.org community, particularly for our new clinical vignettes that discuss the intersection of patient experiences with health policy challenges.

The new site design reflects our growth over the past few years, as we have added to our library and expanded to new chapters at medical schools in the United States and abroad. We hope that it will be a helpful resource to medical students and physicians interested in learning more about health policy.

We hope you will join us.

Upcoming Tosteson Lectures

February 17th, 2012, 12:30-1:30 pm
Karen Davis, PhD
President, The Commonwealth Fund

New Directions in Health Care from The Commonwealth Fund

Why Accountable Care Is a Game Changer May 18, 2012
"Accountable care is a shift in focus from payment for units of service to payment for taking good care of patients over time," explains The Dartmouth Institute's Elliott Fisher, M.D., in this episode about accountable care organizations, or ACOs. Though interviews with Dr. Fisher and Commonwealth Fund experts, Sandy Hausman explores how ACOs […]
Improving Health Care Across Communities March 14, 2012
This episode looks at a new scorecard on local health system performance from The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, and how communities can use its data to improve. […]
What Health Reform Means for Safety Net Providers January 19, 2012
This podcast examines the implications of the Affordable Care Act for the nation's safety net health care providers, which include clinics and hospitals that serve low-income patients and those who have no insurance. […]
Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Premiums Double but Affordable Care Act to Reverse Trend November 17, 2011
Sandy Hausman looks at a new study on state trends for employer-sponsored insurance premiums and deductibles that found a 50 percent increase in premiums between 2003 and 2010, and a 63 percent increase in the employee share of the premium for a family plan. Also discussed are Affordable Care Act provisions that should help lower premiums. […]
Dual Eligibles: Coordinating Care for People with Medicare and Medicaid October 20, 2011
One of the biggest challenges in health care reform is how to care for people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. This group tends to be sicker, poorer, and more costly than the average person in either program. This episode looks at reducing duplication of care and providing assisted living, among other strategies for helping "dual eligibles […]