Key Healthcare Industry Leaders Expound the Importance of AJMC

Throughout 2015, as The American Journal of Managed Care celebrated 20 years, the publication invited key healthcare industry leaders to write special guest commentary, which appeared each month in the journal. Content related to the anniversary can be found at the special 20th anniversary page. (Links to all guest commentaries appear at the bottom.)

The current co-editor-in-chief have been in charge of the journal for more than a decade, and during that time, A. Mark Fendrick, MD, has seen AJMC become “one of the premiere outlets for information on clinical, managerial, and policy research and commentary in the area of healthcare transformation.” Meanwhile, both Michael E. Chernew, PhD, and Associate Editor Dennis P. Scanlon, PhD, wish the journal a happy 20th anniversary, and look forward to many more years.

Lonny Reisman, MD, CEO of HealthReveal, has followed the journal for nearly the entirety of its existence, and Charles N. Kahn III, MPH, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, has spent many years on the editorial board and understands the importance of the journal’s research.

“This is a very complex area, managed care, and as we have seen over the last 20 years, it has changed tremendously,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, president and CEO of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She added that the journal has helped everyone in the industry stay on top of those changes.

Former president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, Karen Ignagni, said the journal has been a “pacesetter” when it comes to research and policy analysis. She and Margaret E. O’Kane, MHA, president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, both wondered at how quickly 20 years with the publication have gone by. O’Kane added that the journal has been important in sharing new techniques that often don’t appear in medical research.

David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, president of The Commonwealth Fund, echoed that sentiment and said that the journal has provided a place for research, such as information that is useful for managers in their daily jobs, which normally wouldn’t appear in the traditional medical literature.

“I want to wish AJMC a very happy anniversary and recognize that you have been important in leading the effort to outcome-based healthcare and the research that’s necessary to understand how to define those outcomes and how to best measure them,” said Christine K. Cassel, MD, president and CEO of the National Quality Forum.

Throughout the last 20 years, AJMC has been a constant even as the country and the world have changed tremendously, said Bernard J. Tyson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente.

“Your credibility, your ability to get us to think in different ways, your freeness, if you will, in sharing information, and offering new ideas, new ways, taking on tough issues, crystalizing the challenges that we have and that we have dealt with over the last 20 years, and probably over the next 100 years, makes you an invaluable resource to this country, to the healthcare industry, and I would even say the world,” Tyson said. “So, congratulations.”

Drs Fendrick and Chernew: Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary

Dr Scanlon: A Health Systems Improvement Research Agenda for AJMC’s Next Decade

O'Kane: Quality′s Quarter-Century

Ignagni: Innovation in Plain Sight

Dr Cassel: Making Measurement Meaningful

Dr Blumenthal: Redefining and Reaffirming Managed Care for the 21st Century

Dr Lavizzo-Mourey: No Longer a Unicorn: Improving Health Through Accountable Care Organizations

Tyson: Moving From Healthcare to Health

Kahn: Building Upon the Strong Foundation of National Healthcare Quality

Dr Reisman: Clinical Efficacy: A Cost Containment Weapon for the 21st Century

Roy A. Beveridge, MD, chief medical officer at Humana: The Path to Value Through the Use of Holistic Care

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania and Center for American Progress: Moving Risk to Physicians