June 12, 2009
Berkeley's Dean Stephen Shortell Presents UK Lectures
Dean Stephen M. Shortell, Blue Cross Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management and dean of University of California (UC), Berkeley's School of Public Health, presented the keynote address at the UK National Health Service Confederation Health Services Research Network Conference in Birmingham, England, on Wednesday, June 3. His topic was "Integrated Care: Policy and Evidence." The United Kingdom, like the United States and many other health systems throughout the world, faces common challenges to improve quality and contain costs in the face of growing numbers of people with chronic illness.
Drawing on his research on integrated delivery systems and physician organizations in the United States, Dean Shortell underscored the importance of aligning financial incentives; implementing quality improvement practices and electronic health records; and developing performance measurement, public reporting, and accountability systems to provide more cost-effective and integrated care. Central to these efforts is the creation of health care teams that can coordinate care for chronically ill patients across providers and settings over time.
"The United Kingdom faces many of the same problems as we do in the United States," said Dean Shortell. "But, unlike the United States, they have an organized delivery system, the modernized National Health Service, within which to implement changes. Our challenge is how best to implement health care reform within a much more pluralistic system."
Dean Shortell was particularly struck by the degree of integration that exists in much of the UK system between primary care and community and social services, which is frequently lacking in the United States. While in the UK, Dean Shortell also presented lectures to health system executives and NHS policymakers at the University of Birmingham, The Nuffield Trust, and the King's Fund; and met with colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.