The imperative to change from an organizational culture and structure built around subspecialists and lucrative procedures to one that optimizes patient experience and health outcomes is one of the greatest challenges confronting academic medicine today. To drive change in this direction, the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Center for Primary Care led an ambitious 4-year initiative, called the Academic Innovations Collaborative, to transform primary care delivery in the clinics where most Harvard trainees learn how to practice primary care. It did so with expert assistance from Qualis Health and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
The learning intervention, which ran from 2012 to 2016, used a team approach within residency training practices and community health centers affiliated with the medical school. It included in-person learning sessions, monthly webinars, practice coaching, and leadership engagement. An external evaluation team from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Healthconducted a rigorous evaluation of the intervention’s impact on cost, quality, and experience. ….more