Professor Meltzer, Chief of Hospital Medicine at University of Chicago to discuss importance of improved care coordination for high-risk patients

The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), a global initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), in partnership with Imperial’s Institute of Global Health Innovation, has announced its second event in the Leading Health Systems Network’s (LHSN) Safer Care Webinar Series: The Comprehensive Care Physician Model: Improving Care Continuity for High-risk Patients.

Taking place on 21st May, the webinar will focus on the rationale and design of the Comprehensive Care Physician Model, a University of Chicago Medicine program that aims to improve continuity of patient care after a hospital stay and strengthen the bond between doctor and patient. The model seeks to achieve this through assigning comprehensive care physicians (CCPs) to provide both inpatient and outpatient care to patients at high risk of hospitalisation, thereby ensuring better care provision at a lower cost.

The featured speaker is Professor David O. Meltzer M.D., Ph.D., Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine, Director of the Center for Health and the Social Sciences, and Chair of the Committee on Clinical and Translational Science at The University of Chicago, where he is Professor in the Department of Medicine, and affiliated faculty of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and the Department of Economics.

Meltzer’s research explores problems in health economics and public policy with a focus on the theoretical foundations of medical cost-effectiveness analysis and the cost and quality of hospital care.

Prof. Meltzer said: “The Comprehensive Care Physician idea brings together the insights of modern health economics and health outcomes research with among the oldest ideas in all of medicine: when a patient is sick they need someone they can trust and who knows them as a person.” 

Innovative programmes like the Comprehensive Care Physician model aim to not only improve outcomes but also tackle the excess costs due to poor care coordination.  In the US alone, it is estimated that poor care coordination results in $25-$45 billion of wasteful spending annually on avoidable readmissions and complications.[1]

Professor The Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH, said: “Poor care coordination contributes to poor-quality care outcomes and costs nations billions of dollars every year through inadequate management of care transitions, unnecessary hospital readmissions, and poor communication.  Through the Safer Care Accelerator, we hope to disseminate best practice and provide insights and recommendations to enable healthcare leaders and policymakers to adopt more effective approaches for improving care coordination and continuity for patients within their systems.”

WISH launched the LHSN Safer Care Accelerator Programme to share best practice and inspire health systems worldwide to provide safer care for patients. The year-long programme will bring together a global network of healthcare organisations to exchange insights, experiences, and data on the topic of patient safety, culminating in the publication of a global report.  So far, 16 organisations spanning six continents have joined the effort.  

The Safer Care Accelerator Programme is part of WISH and Imperial College London’s LHSN initiative. Established in 2009, LHSN has worked with 21 health systems in 11 countries helping them to overcome the challenges they face in providing high value care to the populations they serve. Members of LHSN compare performance relative to their peers, learn from experts and frontline implementers during webinars, and are active members in a community committed to care improvement and innovation.

WISH is spearheaded by Qatar Foundation to inspire and diffuse healthcare innovation and best practice. It remains closely aligned to the vision and mission of QF to unlock human potential and reinforces Qatar’s pioneering role as an emerging centre for healthcare innovation.

To download the WISH report on Patient Safety and learn more about WISH, please visit: www.wish.org.qa. To join the webinar series, please contact the team at: lhsn@imperial.ac.uk.