Achieving health care reform: How physicians can help

Fisher ES, Berwick DM, Davis K. New England Journal of Medicine. 2009 May 29. [Epub ahead of print]

Two threats in particular put reform at risk: conflicting doctrines (regarding the creation of a new public insurance option and government support for comparative-effectiveness studies) and opposition to change among some current stakeholders. The authors suggest that physicians should help create a shared vision that could overcome doctrinal divides — and bring providers together to create a system better aligned both with public needs and with providers' fundamental interests and values.

IHI Innovation Series white paper

This white paper proposes a set of steps health care organizations can undertake to systematically identify and eliminate inefficiencies to create a portfolio of work leading to a 1 percent to 3 percent savings in operating costs per year. Methods for developing a balanced portfolio of projects and for calculating and tracking cost savings are also described.

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Improving the US health care system requires simultaneous pursuit of three aims: improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care. Preconditions for this include the enrollment of an identified population, a commitment to universality for its members, and the existence of an organization (an "integrator") that accepts responsibility for all three aims for that population

Read the article in Health Affairs