Journal supplement presents strategies for introducing health care delivery innovation

The health care system in the United States faces numerous challenges: how to bring innovation from the laboratory to the bedside, how to ensure more equitable use of medical services and, in a time of increasing financial strain, how to pay for that care.

The 10th Biennial Regenstrief Institute Conference supplement to the December 2011 issue of the journal Medical Care tackles key conceptual questions, reviews effective programs and initial results, proposes strategies for the redesign of health care delivery, and outlines a research agenda to create transformational change in health care.

"The U.S. is a world leader in the advancement of medical science and technology, defining the cutting edge in most areas of clinical training, research and practice. This tremendous progress has been achieved by focusing resources on research in the physical and life sciences and the engineering of devices and equipment. However, the lack of a routine process for introducing innovation in health care limits the realization of achievements made possible by these advances," concludes the paper summarizing the proceedings.

"As we implement new methods of health care delivery and streamline others, encourage effective use of health information technology and attempt to cut costs, the strategies presented in this supplement will provide evidence-based frameworks and innovative examples of strategies that work," said Regenstrief Institute Investigator Brad Doebbeling, M.D., M.Sc., Indiana University School of Medicine professor of medicine, epidemiology and informatics, who co-organized the conference.

Among the topics included in the supplement are:

• Accelerating discovery from bench to bedside
• Successful strategies in health care redesign
• Use of health information technology

"It is especially exciting to be engaged in evidence-supported change in an era when health care reform is on the front burner for patients, government, the insurance industry, the medical community and other stakeholders," Dr. Doebbeling said.

He highlighted "Quality Measurement and System Change of Cancer Care Delivery" — which he authored along with Regenstrief Investigator David Haggstrom, M.D., of the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Indiana University School of Medicine— as an example of the type of evidence-based research presented at the meeting and included in the supplement. The 10th Biennial Regenstrief Institute Conference was supported by a grant from the Regenstrief Foundation.