On Sept. 26, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) released concise summaries of the efforts of 19 working groups to develop a bipartisan health policy agenda.
The groups — convened earlier this year as part of the “Vital Directions” initiative — include more than 100 leaders in a variety of stakeholder sectors. They focused on identifying specific measures to improve health care, strengthen science and technology related to health care and medicine, and improve population health in the United States.
The 19 viewpoints, published online in JAMA, include:
- Preparing for Better Health and Health Care for an Aging Population
- Health Information Technology Interoperability and Use for Better Care and Evidence
- Tailoring Complex Care Management for High-Need, High-Cost Patients
- Training the Workforce for 21st-Century Science
- Research Into Brain Disorders as an Example of Targeted Science
- Innovation in Medicine and Device Development, Regulatory Review, and Use of Clinical Advances
- Data Acquisition, Curation, and Use for a Continuously Learning Health System
- Improving Benefit Design to Promote Effective, Efficient, and Affordable Care
- Improving Access to Effective Care for People With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
- Workforce for 21st-Century Health and Health Care
- Fostering Transparency in Outcomes, Quality, Safety, and Costs
- Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequalities
- Democratization of Health Care
- Realizing the Full Potential of Precision Medicine in Health and Health Care
- Competencies and Tools to Shift Payments From Volume to Value
- Chronic Disease Prevention: Tobacco Avoidance, Physical Activity, and Nutrition for a Healthy Start
- More Value From Payment Reform in Health Care and Biomedical Innovation
- Putting the Health of Communities and Populations First
- Systems Strategies for Health Throughout the Life Course
Two accompanying editorials — one by C. David Naylor, MD, of the University of Toronto’s department of medicine, and another by Howard Koh, MD, with Harvard University’s Chan School of Public Health — outline the findings in and offer commentary on the 19 summaries.
The viewpoints are not official recommendations from NAM. An overall report on the working groups’ findings will be published after wide discussion of these summaries.
