IOM Meeting Tackles Lowering the Cost of Medical Care

How can health care costs be lowered but at the same time not jeopardize outcomes?

Recently, AAPA attended a meeting in Washington, D.C. to explore that very topic in a session called The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Cost and Improving Outcomes. The meeting, which was the third in a series, was sponsored by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Roundtable on Evidence-based Medicine.

This broad-range discussion focused on how to lower costs both from the federal and the private payer point of view. A number of creative solutions were offered, including “bundling” payments for care, using medical homes, and “accountable” care organizations.

AAPA Works to Improve Diabetes Care at September NDEP Meeting

Up to this point, much of the focus on diabetes care has been dealing with macrovascular complications like heart disease and stroke. Recently AAPA — which is both a member of the steering committee and workgroup — attended the Health Care Professional Workgroup meeting sponsored by the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP). There, members discussed microvascular complications, which affect the eyes, nerves and kidneys, and then developed messages about how to prevent and control those kinds of complications.

Task Force Explores Early Detection and Diagnosis of Children with a Primary Muscle Disease

AAPA recently attended a task force meeting sponsored by the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) in Atlanta, Ga. The meeting was a collaboration of many professional groups who have an interest in the early detection and diagnosis of children who have a primary muscle disease.

The meeting’s main goals were to promote the message that primary care providers should focus on a child’s walking/running/stair climbing and adequately evaluate hypotonia when assessing children suspected of developmental delay.

AAPA Attends Annual Meeting for Vascular Disease Foundation/Peripheral Arterial Disease Coalition/ Venous Disease Coalition

Recently, AAPA attended the Vascular Disease Foundation/Peripheral Arterial Disease Coalition (PAD)/Venous Disease Coalition (VDC) annual meeting. The PAD Coalition is an alliance of health organizations, professional societies — of which AAPA is a member — government agencies and corporations united around a common purpose of improving the health and health care of individuals with PAD.

The coalition announced a recently launched petition drive urging the current administration to increase access to evidence-based health care for individuals with PAD. Also during the meeting, an update from the National Minority Quality Forum apprised the group of the PAD Atlas, which provides on-demand capacity for evaluating the prevalence of diagnosed PAD nationwide, by city and states, as well as by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Users may create customized maps depicting PAD prevalence to support educational, advocacy and public affairs initiatives. The atlas can be accessed at www.mappad.org.

Also, Garth Graham, MD, deputy assistant secretary for minority health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), followed up on the Surgeon General’s Call to Action by focusing attention on the African-American population which is at a significantly increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). To help raise awareness, the VDC launched “Pause for Prevention,” an assessment tool to help individuals understand their risk for DVT or PE. The tool can be accessed on the VDC Web site.

Doug Scott, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it