Preventing and Managing Chronic Conditions: What's Working in the Real World?

April 8 HSC Conference Will Explore Innovative Wellness and Chronic Care Management Initiatives

News Release
March 16, 2009

FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Alwyn Cassil (202) 264-3484 or acassil@hschange.org

WASHINGTON, DC—Innovative approaches to promote wellness and manage chronic conditions will be the focus of a Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) conference on April 8—the second of four HSC conferences on significant health policy topics sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance and the American College of Preventive Medicine.

Wellness and prevention strategies are fast becoming a standard feature of employer-based health benefits. What approaches are paying off? Likewise, coordinating care for patients with multiple chronic conditions is a challenge in the fragmented U.S. health care system. How are health care providers and payers reengineering care delivery for patients with chronic conditions?

The conference, titled "Innovations in Preventing and Managing Chronic Conditions: What's Working in the Real World?," will convene leading experts to discuss cutting-edge employer approaches to promote health and wellness and innovative payer and provider efforts to improve care for people with chronic conditions.

HSC President Paul B. Ginsburg, Ph.D., will moderate the conference, and panelists include D.W. Edington, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center; L. Allen Dobson Jr., M.D., chairman, North Carolina Community Care Networks; Stephen E. Saunders, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer, APS Healthcare; Amy Shultz, M.D., M.P.H., director, prevention and community health, Allegiance Health; and Janet Tomcavage, R.N., M.S.N. vice president for health services, Geisinger Health Plan.

The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to noon, with a continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m., at the Marriott at Metro Center, 775 12th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. Please register online for the free conference at http://www.hschange.org/index.cgi?conf=show&what=25. Attendees will also receive a complimentary copy of Dee Edington's new book, Zero Trends: Health as a Serious Economic Strategy, a comprehensive guide to employer-sponsored health management programs.

The April 8 conference is the second of four conferences organized and conducted by HSC and sponsored by PhRMA, DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance and the American College of Preventive Medicine. Under the sponsorship arrangement, HSC and the three sponsoring organizations jointly choose the conference topics, while HSC is solely responsible for organizing and conducting the conferences.

The Center for Studying Health System Change is a nonpartisan policy research organization committed to providing objective and timely research on the nation's changing health system to help inform policy makers and contribute to better health care policy. HSC, based in Washington, D.C., is funded principally by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is affiliated with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.