Obama Health Care Summit Live on CSPAN

President Barak Obama's White House health care summit will be shown live, in its entirety, on CSPAN3 at 1 PM Eastern.

The summit which consists of 120 invited guests, includes doctors, insurers, business owners, patients and lawmakers with a wide range of solutions to fixing the health care system. Both Democrats and Republicans have been invited and the discussion is expected to be lively.

For the live stream of CSPAN3, click here.

For related coverage:

Agenda & Listing of the Participants - NRO Online

Obama said to be open-minded on health-care change - Associated Press

Health care summit at White House a first step to overhaul - USA Today

Sebelius Nominated as HHS

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was officially nominated by President Barack Obama as the Secretary of Health and Human Services today.

To read more, click here.

Nominations for AAMSE Board of Directors

Deadline: Thursday, March 12

The AAMSE Nominating Committee, chaired by Immediate Past President Ken Slaw, PhD, is calling for nominations for candidates for positions on the Board of Directors. Deadline for nominations is Thursday, March 12. A total of four positions are open: president-elect and secretary-treasurer for 2009-10, and two director positions for 2009-12. All AAMSE members who are full-time employees of a qualifying professional organization or society are eligible to be nominated, and self-nominations are strongly encouraged. Please contact either Ken Slaw or Becky Brandt, executive director, to nominate yourself or a colleague; or send your nominations to the AAMSE Nominating Committee at aamse@aamse.org. Once we receive a nomination, the individual will be contacted and additional information will be requested.

Ken M. Slaw, PhD, Chair
American Academy of Pediatrics

Karen J. Collishaw
American Academy of Dermatology Association

Allison Peterson
Kansas Medical Society

Susie M. Pouliot
Idaho Medical Association

Cynthia S. Burger, CAE
Broome, Delaware, Otsego
And Tompkins County (NY) Medical Societies

Jo Bryson, CAE
Oregon Medical Society

Mike D. Abrams
Iowa Medical Society

Nancy J. Adams, MSM
Monroe County (NY) Medical Society

George Dudley, MBA
Massachusetts Medical Society

Shelly B. Rodrigues, CAE
California Academy of Family Physicians

AMA Drafts Letter to President Obama

The American Medical Association has drafted letter seeking to collaborate with the new Administration and Congress and other organizations to develop and carry out action plans to achieve them a Patient-Centered Culture.

The letter outlined ten key critical components to achieving this outcome. They were:
10 Critical Components of a Patient-Centered Culture

1. Shared Decision Making-each patient and caregiver and the accountable team of healthcare professionals-physicians and all healthcare professionals-providing care to the patient have a shared understanding of the options for treatment, selected treatment plans, and desired outcomes
   
2. Shared Understanding of Quality-each member of the team understands the core facets of high quality care and has the competencies to practice in a 21st century system, as envisioned by the Institute of Medicine's Crossing the Quality Chasm report In support of efficiently implementing the plan and achieving good outcomes for the patient, the team of healthcare professionals:
3. has timely access to patient records, including all relevant tests results to avoid redundancy and risk to the patient
4. has access to comparative-effectiveness research information to assist in value-based decisionmaking at the point of care
5. is implementing a set of performance measures-based on clinical evidence and supported by their profession and other stakeholders-and these measures encompass processes, outcomes, and appropriateness of care
6. enters patient data into an interoperable electronic health record system (EHRS) once; the EHRS provides decision support; performance measurement results; and the ability to export data to other entities overseeing professional accountability, data aggregation, and public reporting
7. reviews performance reports routinely to identify areas for improvement; these reports track variations in care, particularly across patient co-morbidities as well as patient race, ethnicity, primary language and other relevant demographic characteristics
8. implements best practices from participation in a Quality Improvement (QI) collaborative- partnership among local and state entities that provide resources, tools, technical assistance, and training on quality improvement techniques With input from other stakeholders, the profession of medicine in this new culture:
9. comes together consistently to set targets; evaluates its progress on improving patient outcomes and effectively managing resources; determines which improvement methodologies have the greatest impact in practice; and monitors unintended consequences
10. practices transparency and accountability by reporting findings broadly

To read the full letter click here.

P.R. Kit Available for Meeting Planners

Following President Obama's stimulus package and the coinciding rules on "luxury expenditures," there is a new tool kit available to meeting planners which aids them in more easily communicating the return on investment of events.

To access the tool kit, click here.

AMA Releases Healthcare Reform Action Kit

The AMA released their action kit for physicians to use in the federal debate on healthcare reform, which includes briefs on current issues surrounding the health system.

To access the kit, click here.

ASAE Study Shows New Challenges for Associations

The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) released the results of a study showing that most association executives have positive outlooks in the face of the struggling economy, but the dynamic of face-to-face meetings may change, as well as membership demographics.

To read the white paper, click here.