Patient and Consumer Issues
by Laura DeStefano | Jun 29, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
During the first decade of this century, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) played a major role in laying out a vision and strategic direction for change at all levels of the health system, including patients engaged as partners in their health and health care;...
by Laura DeStefano | Jun 19, 2012 | Discussion Paper, Perspectives
Introduction This paper describes 10 attributes of health literate health care organizations, that is, health care organizations that make it easier for people to navigate, understand, and use information and services to take care of their health. Having health...
by Laura DeStefano | Jun 15, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
For decades, using electronic health records (EHRs) and exchanging health information has been viewed as essential for modernizing health care and improving patient care. The 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provided...
by Laura DeStefano | Jun 5, 2012 | Discussion Paper, Perspectives
As leaders of health care organizations, we are acutely aware of the pressures that rising health care costs place on individuals, employers, and the government, as we are of unacceptable shortfalls in the quality and efficiency of care. But we have also learned,...
by Laura DeStefano | Jun 1, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
In the next 10 years, data and the ability to analyze them will do for doctors’ minds what X-ray and medical imaging have done for their vision. How? By turning data into actionable information. Take, for instance, IBM’s intelligent supercomputer, Watson. Watson can...
by Laura DeStefano | May 18, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) release of the reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm in 1999 and 2001, respectively, were markers of a tipping point in U.S. health care. Prior to that time, “quality” in health care had largely been defined by...
by Laura DeStefano | May 18, 2012 | Discussion Paper, Perspectives
In Canada, as elsewhere, the translation of health research outcomes to development of products and services for health care and final implementation in patients does not progress as rapidly, efficiently, or successfully as it should. In order to address this problem,...
by Laura DeStefano | May 4, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
Once again, the challenge of how to constrain rising health care expenditures has caught the public interest, stimulated by concerns over rising federal debt and limited ability to generate tax revenues. I recently chronicled my unsuccessful efforts at stimulating...
by Laura DeStefano | Apr 20, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
Four years ago, UCLA’s medical center was ranked as an honor-roll hospital by U.S. News and World Report—but our patients would seldom “refer us to a friend.” We skillfully performed today’s health care miracles: organ transplants, complex neurosurgical repairs, and...
by Laura DeStefano | Mar 9, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
A basic aim of effective and efficient health care is ensuring the right match between the patient’s condition and the setting for the patient’s care. With that aim in mind, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently implemented the Surgical Complexity...
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