Quality Improvement

One of my greatest privileges as president and CEO of AcademyHealth is the opportunity to represent you, our members – who are making strides each day to help us better understand and improve our health care system – in visits with members of Congress and congressional staff. It is an honor to speak about how health services research is revolutionizing the way we see and respond to health care challenges and opportunities, and I am constantly energized by the promise and impact of your work.

Last year – as part of our ongoing charge to ensure health services research is accounted for in federal policy – AcademyHealth submitted several comments to federal policymakers -- among them were responses to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects and the NPRM on the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This year we’ve seen final rules on both these subjects released.

Will evidence matter in 2017? If we want to truly transform health and health care in this country, it must. AcademyHealth President and CEO Lisa Simpson writes about the key areas in health policy where evidence should matter most.