ImproveHealthCare.org is a student-led initiative to create an interactive environment that provides medical students, residents, and practicing physicians with cutting-edge information about health care policy and its effects on the practice of medicine.

American health care continues to be plagued by systemic problems, including uneven quality of care, inadequate access to care, and widespread disparities in care. Health professionals are uniquely positioned to improve the health care system through their direct interaction with patients and policymakers alike, yet traditional education has left them ill prepared to assume this responsibility. This is where ImproveHealthCare.org comes in, offering a wealth of information and resources directed at fostering understanding of the US health care system and discussion about ways to improve it.

Health Policy Lecture Series

The Daniel C. Tosteson Lecture Series, created in 1997, is a joint venture between the students and faculty of Harvard Medical School. The series creates a formal, extracurricular structure for medical students to engage with individuals across the health care policy spectrum—from physicians to hospital executives to politician, to academicians and more. The interest generated in the Tosteson Lecture Series not only helps foster further academic engagement by students in these fields but also serves as a mechanism by which ImproveHealthCare.org reaches out to students interested these topics.

Case Studies

Under the guidance of faculty members at Harvard Medical School (HMS), students have written many case studies that can be used for small-group sessions on issues including health care cost, quality, and access. These cases are used at HMS in its required course in health policy, as well as in informal luncheon sessions with other students. In the latter case, the sessions are run by students. Although the initial cases were written by students at HMS, students from other schools are now contributing cases. These cases have been used in other medical schools and also form a basis for discussion at the Annual Conference of the ImproveHealthCare.org group.

Outreach

An important component of the group’s activity is outreach—engaging students from other medical schools in developing local chapters that become an educational vehicle in health policy. Sometimes members of these chapters help create formal courses in health policy at their institutions; in other cases, they use the web-based cases for student-led discussions.