Participating Faculty: The Aligning Forces for Quality Initiative: Early Lessons From Efforts to Improve Healthcare Quality at the Community Level

This supplement to The American Journal of Managed Care was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The Aligning Forces for Quality evaluation is funded by a grant from the RWJF.

This supplement to The American Journal of Managed Care discusses the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative, the largest privately funded community-based quality improvement initiative to date. It provides funds and technical assistance to 16 multi-stakeholder alliances located throughout the United States, with the goal of improving patient health and healthcare. This supplement includes original research manuscripts describing the AF4Q initiative and results thus far. It also presents perspective articles from nationally recognized thought leaders.

Guest Editor

David Blumenthal, MD, MPP

Dr Blumenthal, the Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System and Harvard Medical School, is chief health information and innovation officer at Partners Healthcare System in Boston. He also chairs The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the national coordinator for health information technology under President Barack Obama, charged with building a nationwide interoperable, privacy-protected health information technology infrastructure. Previously, he held posts as senior vice president at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Management at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. During the late 1970s, he was a professional staff member on the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research. Dr Blumenthal is the founding chairman of AcademyHealth, the national organization of health services researchers; a former national correspondent and board member for the New England Journal of Medicine; and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. In January 2013, he will become president and chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Fund.

Faculty—Perspective Articles

Randall D. Cebul, MD

President, Better Health Greater Cleveland

Director, Center for Health Care Research & Policy

Professor of Medicine

Case Western Reserve University/MetroHealth Medical Center

Cleveland, Ohio

Marshall H. Chin, MD, MPH

Professor of Medicine

Department of Medicine

Director

Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

National Program Office

Center for Health and the Social Sciences

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Amanda R. Clarke, MPH

Project Manager

Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

National Program Office

Center for Health and the Social Sciences

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Scott C. Cook, PhD

Deputy Director

Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

National Program Office

Center for Health and the Social Sciences

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Susanne E. Dade, MPA

Deputy Director

Puget Sound Health Alliance

Seattle, Washington

Claire B. Gibbons, PhD, MPH

Senior Program Officer

Research and Evaluation Unit

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Princeton, New Jersey

Alan Glaseroff, MD, ABFM

Director

Stanford Coordinated Care

Clinical Professor

Stanford School of Medicine

Palo Alto, California

Anna P. Goddu, MSc

Project Manager

Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

National Program Office

Center for Health and the Social Sciences

Department of Medicine

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Lisa M. Letourneau, MD, MPH

Executive Director

Maine Quality Counts

Manchester, Maine

Kevin W. McCullough, MJ

Health Communications Manager

Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

National Program Office

Center for Health and the Social Sciences

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Gordon Mosser, MD

Senior Fellow

Division of Health Policy and Management

School of Public Health

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Debra L. Ness, MS

President

National Partnership for Women & Families

Washington, DC

Robert S. Nocon, MHS

Senior Health Services Researcher

Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

National Program Office

Center for Health and the Social Sciences

Department of Medicine

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Lisa A. Simpson, MB, BCh, MPH, FAAP

President and Chief Executive Officer

AcademyHealth

Washington, DC

Anne F. Weiss, MPP

Team Director and Senior Program Officer

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Princeton, New Jersey

Disclosures—Perspective Articles

The Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) evaluation is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

These faculty report relationships with the following organizations:

Kapil D. Sethi, MD, FRCP

Randall D. Cebul, MD

Board membership: Better Health Greater Cleveland

Grants/meeting or conference attendance: RWJF

Marshall H. Chin, MD, MPH

Consultant or paid advisory boards/grants/honoraria: RWJF

Amanda R. Clarke, MPH

Grants: RWJF

Scott C. Cook, PhD

Grants: RWJF

Susanne E. Dade, MPA

Employee: Puget Sound Health Alliance

Grants/meeting or conference attendance: RWJF

Alan Glaseroff, MD, ABFM

Grants/meeting or conference attendance: RWJF

Anna P. Goddu, MSc

Grants: RWJF

Lisa M. Letourneau, MD, MPH

Consultant/paid advisory boards: Maine Health Management Coalition

Employee: Maine Quality Counts

Grants/meeting or conference attendance: RWJF

Kevin W. McCullough, MJ

Grants: RWJF

Gordon Mosser, MD

Board membership: Minnesota Community Measurement

Consultant/paid advisory boards: HEALTHeLINK, P2 Collaborative of Western New York, RWJF

Honoraria: RWJF

Meeting or conference attendance: Annual Colloquium of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, RWJF

Debra L. Ness, MS

Board membership: AF4Q National Advisory Committee

Grants/honoraria/meeting or conference attendance: RWJF

Robert S. Nocon, MHS

Grants: RWJF

Lisa A. Simpson, MB, BCh, MPH, FAAP

Consultant/paid advisory boards: RWJF

Claire B. Gibbons, PhD, MPH; and Anne F. Weiss, MPP, report no relationship or financial interest with any entity that would pose a conflict of interest with the subject matter of this supplement.

Faculty—Original Research

Jeffrey A. Alexander, PhD

Richard C. Jelinek Professor of Health Management and Policy

School of Public Health

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Dasha Aseyev, BS

Research Technologist

Center for Health Care and Policy Research

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Jeff Beich, PhD

Consultant

Jeff Beich Consulting

Grand Island, New York

Contracted Research Associate

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Laura J. Bodenschatz, MSW

Qualitative Research Manager

Center for Health Care and Policy Research

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Jon B. Christianson, PhD

James A. Hamilton Chair in Health Policy and Management

Division of Health Policy and Management

University of Minnesota School of Public Health

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Jillian B. Harvey, MPH

PhD Candidate

Department of Health Policy and Administration

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Romana Hasnain-Wynia, PhD

Director, Center for Healthcare Equity

Associate Professor, Research Institute for Healthcare Studies

Division of General Internal Medicine

Northwestern University

Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, Illinois

Larry R. Hearld, PhD

Assistant Professor

Health Services Administration

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama

Megan C. McHugh, PhD

Research Assistant Professor

Institute for Healthcare Studies

Department of Emergency Medicine

Northwestern University

Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, Illinois

Jessica N. Mittler, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Health Policy and Administration

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Jennifer L. O’Hora, BA

PhD Candidate

Department of Health Policy and Administration

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Javiera Pumarino, BA

Research Assistant

Center for Healthcare Equity

Institute for Healthcare Studies

Northwestern University

Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, Illinois

Dennis P. Scanlon, PhD

Professor

Department of Health Policy and Administration

Center for Health Care and Policy Research

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Bethany W. Shaw, MHA

Research Data Analyst

Center for Health Care and Policy Research

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Yunfeng Shi, PhD

Research Assistant Professor

Center for Health Care and Policy Research

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Karen M. Volmar, JD, MPH

Associate Professor

Department of Health Policy and Administration

Penn State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

Deidre M. Weber, BA

Senior Research Coordinator

Center for Healthcare Equity

Institute for Healthcare Studies

Northwestern University

Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, Illinois

Julie C. Yonek, MPH

Research Associate and Project Director

Center for Healthcare Equity

Institute for Healthcare Studies

Northwestern University

Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, Illinois

Disclosures—Original Research

The Aligning Forces for Quality evaluation is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Jeffrey A. Alexander, PhD; Dasha Aseyev, BS; Jeff Beich, PhD; Laura J. Bodenschatz, MSW; Jon B. Christianson, PhD; Jillian B. Harvey, MPH; Romana Hasnain-Wynia, PhD; Larry R. Hearld, PhD; Megan C. McHugh, PhD; Jessica N. Mittler, PhD; Jennifer L. O’Hora, BA; Javiera Pumarino, BA; Dennis P. Scanlon, PhD; Bethany W. Shaw, MHA; Yunfeng Shi, PhD; Karen M. Volmar, JD, MPH; Deidre M. Weber, BA; and Julie C. Yonek, MPH report no relationship or financial interest with any entity that would pose a conflict of interest with the subject matter of this supplement.

Signed disclosures are on file at the office of The American Journal of Managed Care, Plainsboro, New Jersey.

The opinions expressed in this supplement are those of the authors, presenters, and/or panelists and are not attributable to the sponsor or the publisher, editor, or editorial board of The American Journal of Managed Care. Clinical judgment must guide each professional in weighing the benefits of treatment against the risk of toxicity. Dosages, indications, and methods of use for products referred to in this supplement are not necessarily the same as indicated in the package insert for the product and may reflect the clinical experience of the authors, presenters, and/or panelists or may be derived from the professional literature or other clinical sources. Consult complete prescribing information before administering.

Download PDF: Participating Faculty: The Aligning Forces for Quality Initiative: Early Lessons From Efforts to Improve Healthcare Quality at the Community Level