The ImproveHealthCare (IHC) team believes that every emerging health professional should be prepared to work with multiple participants in health care systems in order to improve patient care. Our mission is to enable students to become more knowledgeable about critical issues in the health care system, including quality, access, and disparities.

Since 2003, IHC has focused on three primary activities: building student chapters at US medical schools; developing, teaching, and disseminating clinical cases with a health policy focus; and hosting an annual conference to generate a national dialogue about health policy.

In 2006, IHC launched this website as an online resource with clinical cases, issue briefs, clinical vignettes, and lecture videos generated by medical students with the guidance of expert faculty. Medical students, residents, faculty, and other health professionals have used this material to learn more about important issues in health policy.

Below are the steps to start a chapter and join our community:

• Find a team of committed leaders.

• Teach and lead case discussions. ImproveHealthCare.org began as an effort to bring health policy education to medical students, and we have built a library of cases that cover important challenges in health policy. As an IHC chapter, your primary goal is to bring together medical students to learn about and discuss current topics in health policy. The cases include background information and thought-provoking questions—your job is to lead the case for your peers.  Our cases are being updated frequently, and we add new cases as well.

• Invite speakers. There is no substitute for the insight of leaders actively involved in driving health policy, and many of them can be found on the campuses and hospitals where you study. Most are eager to speak with medical students, and lunch and dinner talks are a great way to introduce students on your campus to your chapter and remind them how much of an impact health policy will have on their careers. If you record your guest speaker, we can add the video to our library, so that students at other chapters can watch them too.

• Attend the annual conference. ImproveHealthCare.org hosts an annual conference at Harvard Medical School that brings together medical students interested in health policy. This conference is a great way to meet students from other chapters and to learn more about events and activities at other schools. From time to time we have been able to provide partial reimbursement for the conference. Speakers from past years have included Dr. Jerry Avorn, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and chief, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Dr. Thomas H. Lee, CEO, Partners Community HealthCare, Inc., network president, Partners HealthCare; and Jon Kingsdale, executive director, the Massachusetts Health Connector.

• Write cases. If there is a topic you think would be a valuable addition to our library, we are always looking for more material. IHC’s library of cases, issue briefs, and vignettes has been built through student contributions under the guidance of expert mentors. If you are interested in contributing material, please contact us with your topic and the name of your faculty member, including his/her affiliations. Cases published on our website can generally be included on your curriculum vitae under educational tools. Learn what makes a good case.

• Become involved on campus. Our library of cases is used, in part, for a required month-long course on health care policy at Harvard Medical School. We hope that by providing medical students with IHC’s resources, we can give you the tools you need to integrate health policy education into the curriculum at other medical schools.

• Update us on what you are doing. As ImproveHealthCare.org expands to new campuses, we would like to hear feedback from you about what has worked well at your chapter and what we can work with you to improve. While we hope we will be able to stay in contact with all of you over the year, we ask the active chapters to fill out a one-page chapter report at the end of each semester.

Click here for information on developing content for ImproveHealthCare.org.