Congratulations to Don Berwick, MD, MPP, founding President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), on his recent appointment as the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Dr. Berwick has dedicated his professional life to the promotion of quality and safety in health care delivery. As one of our nation's leading quality gurus, Dr. Berwick has influenced countless health care providers and institutions. IHI’s excellent conferences engender a revival-meeting level of commitment and enthusiasm for quality improvement among participants. Initiatives such as the 5 Million Lives Campaign and IHI’s Collaboratives have shaped clinical care and measurement of quality outcomes.
We at the Hartford Foundation have a special place in our hearts for Don and IHI. Years ago the Foundation provided the seed money that Berwick and his colleagues used to start the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. We are proud to have been an early supporter.
So where was I when the appointment was announced?
Fittingly, Chris Langston and I were participating in a meeting called "A Conference to Advance the State of the Science and Practice on Scale-up and Spread of Effective Health Programs" organized by Joe McCannon of IHI; Brian Mittman, Director, VA Center for Implementation Practice and Research Support; and Wynne Norton from the University of Alabama. The meeting was funded by The Commonwealth Fund, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Donaghue Foundation, and us. The meeting aimed to create a national agenda to help move proven innovations into practice, a topic near and dear to Dr. Berwick. Participants included representatives from CMS, AHRQ, the office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), CDC, the American Hospital Association and its Health Research and Educational Trust (AHA/HRET), and leading innovators such as Jurgen Unutzer, MD, MPH, MA, who leads the depression effort known as IMPACT.
With Don Berwick at the helm of CMS, I believe we have moved one step closer to making innovative health practices more widespread. I believe his vision will have a profound impact on the way our nation delivers health care to older adults.