AcademyHealth Blog

Welcome to the AcademyHealth blog, together with our members, we promote interaction across the health research and policy arenas by bringing together a broad spectrum of players to share their perspectives. Here we offer important perspectives from people passionate about expanding access to care, reducing costs and improving quality, as well as updates on AcademyHealth activities relevant to the community.

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Reflections on World Patient Safety Day: An Urgent Call for Radical Action

With medical errors causing more than 250,000 deaths annually, Karen Wolk Feinstein of the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, an AcademyHealth organizational affiliate, issues a call for change in four key areas to save lives and improve care.

Posted Sep 19, 2019 By Karen Wolk Feinstein, Ph.D.

Topics Delivering Better Care Quality Improvement Costs & Payments

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Senate’s Labor HHS Funding Bill Includes Unacceptable Cuts to Health Research

AcademyHealth urges the Senate to revisit a devastating cut to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and to act to ensure sufficient and stable funding as it works with the House to finalize spending bills this fall.

Posted Sep 18, 2019 By Lisa Simpson, M.B., B.Ch., M.P.H., FAAP

Topics Advocacy

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Evaluation of Iowa’s 1115 Waiver Highlights Importance of Communication, Instrument Testing

Recent AcademyHealth webinar presenter and behavioral scientist Natoshia Askelson reflects on the evaluation of Iowa’s Healthy Behavior Program 1115 Waiver.

Posted Sep 18, 2019 By Natoshia M. Askelson, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Topics Access to Care Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid

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The First World Patient Safety Day: Time for a Moonshot for Health Services Research?

AcademyHealth member and Professor Hardeep Singh and Tejal Gandhi, chief clinical and safety officer at IHI, highlight three considerations for the field of health services research to advance patient safety.

Posted Sep 16, 2019 By Hardeep Singh, M.D., M.P.H. , Tejal Gandhi, M.D., M.P.H.

Topics Patient & Consumer Engagement Translation, Dissemination & Implementation Quality Improvement

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Review Highlights Need for More Holistic Measures around Low-Value Care

A review commissioned by AcademyHealth finds that most efforts to decrease low-value care focus more on the reduction of certain tests and treatments, rather than on assessing unintended consequences, listening to patients and providers, and measuring outcomes.

Posted Sep 13, 2019 By Lauren Adams, M.A.

Topics Delivering Better Care Quality Improvement

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Health Care’s Failure to Share Data: An Issue of Culture or a Crisis of Integrity?

Health Data Leadership Institute speaker Laura L. Adams reflects on the barriers to better health data sharing, calling for stakeholders to find the will and the way to advance data sharing.

Posted Sep 12, 2019 By Laura L. Adams

Topics Data Sharing Delivering Better Care

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Recent Governmental Actions on Medicaid Waivers Present a Diverse Implementation Landscape

As states continue to propose, implement, and evaluate new Medicaid demonstrations, AcademyHealth reviews recent developments related to Medicaid expansion funding, work requirements, and hospital reimbursement.

Posted Sep 6, 2019

Topics Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid Access to Care

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Evaluating Health Care Innovation in Five Easy Steps

Health Data Leadership Institute speaker and AcademyHealth member Lisa Green encourages consumers and researchers to consider the strengths and shortcomings of data used to measure the effectiveness of health care interventions, models, and policies.

Posted Sep 3, 2019 By Lisa Green, Ph.D.

Topics Using Health Data Costs & Payments Quality Improvement

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Health Data and Health Policy Come Together in February 2020

AcademyHealth President & CEO Dr. Lisa Simpson describes the thinking behind co-locating the annual Health Datapalooza and AcademyHealth’s National Health Policy Conference and announces the opening of calls for presentations and presentation reviewers.

Posted Aug 27, 2019 By Lisa Simpson, M.B., B.Ch., M.P.H., FAAP

Topics Using Health Data National Health Policy Conference Health Datapalooza

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Enlisting America’s Mayors as Public Health Allies

Mayors are key public health actors, often playing an important role in shaping social determinants - from housing to education to the physical urban environment. But how do mayors perceive the health of their communities and approach their role in promoting healthy places?

Posted Aug 26, 2019 By Katharine Lusk, M.P.P., Monica Wang, Sc.D., M.S.

Topics Advocacy Building Healthy Communities Public & Population Health