Welcome
Letter From The Editor
We don’t build each issue of HMI WORLD around a common theme, but sometimes those themes emerge on their own. The theme that jumps out in the November-December 2007 issue is outputs.
Programs & Events
HMSDC delivers CME program
on prevention in primary care practice for
Dubai Healthcare
City physicians
HMSDC delivers CME program on prevention in primary care practice for Dubai Healthcare City physicians
In October physicians who are practicing in Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) gathered for a continuing medical education program entitled “Putting Prevention into Primary Care Practice.” The program was held by the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education & Research.
DHCC Chief Executive Officer Muhadditha Al Hashimi, DrPH said that the program was “part of our endeavor to raise industry standards in the region,” adding that DHCC planned to develop similar initiatives in collaboration with HMSDC.” Since opening at the end of 2005, the DHCC community has grown rapidly. As of July 2007, more than 400 health care professionals, including approximately 170 physicians, were practicing in DHCC, and the community had recorded more than 50,000 outpatient visits. 
Robert Thurer, MD, Chief Academic Officer at HMSDC, said he hoped that programs like this would serve as a “step towards providing cost-effective consumer-directed health care.” He added, “We believe strongly that investment in preventive health is vital to safeguard and improve the health of the community.”
The program was moderated by Harvey Makadon MD, Vice President Global Programs at HMI, who has played an integral role in developing CME programs focused on primary care practice. Arch Carson, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Occupational Medicine and Environment Services at the University of Texas-Houston (pictured), led a discussion on the role of screening and laboratory tests in clinical practice, with an emphasis on how these and other tools can help primary care practitioners identify and help prevent public health threats. Beverly Woo, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, discussed prevention standards for a range of health problems addressed in primary care practice, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
For information on educational offerings from HMSDC, please visit the HMSDC website.
Program in Portugal addresses health care financing
Around 50 health care executives, government officials, and regulatory authorities gathered in Porto, Portugal for a three-day course on health care financing.
The program was developed by HMI and the Institute of Health Economics and Management (IEMS) at the University of Lausanne, in cooperation with the Hospital Geral de Santo Antonio. It is an offshoot of the executive education course “Mastering the Challenges of Health Care” that has been offered each of the last four years by HMI and IEMS.
The aim of the program, said HMI Senior Consultant and Director Miles Shore, MD, was to help participants engage the conundrum of health care financing from the distinct but equally crucial perspectives of cost and value. While the costs of providing health care, which have been rising in all countries, regardless of their level of development, have preoccupied political leaders and health care experts, the value of health care has been a late arrival to financial discussions.
“The value of health care expenditures has in the past referred primarily to the quality of life given to the individual. But today health policy analysts calculate the economic value of health care as it pertains to lost productivity, physical and mental disability, and chronic illness,” said Shore. “An effective approach to health care financing considers both the costs of providing health care and the value resulting from these expenditures.”
The course built on basic principles of health care financing to cover topics such as revenue collection and resource pooling, pricing of services, payment mechanisms for physicians and institutions, and issues around pharmaceutical purchasing.
Alberto Holly, PhD, and Pascal Paschoud, PhD, both of IEMS, co-directed the course with Dr. Shore. The faculty included Harvard Medical School economics professors Richard G. Frank, PhD, and Thomas G. McGuire. Planning for a repeat of the course in 2008 is underway.
