Resource Spotlight 

Connect with Us

Partnership held its bi-annual Health Professionals Roundtable (HPR) meeting on June 8. The meeting focused on team-based approaches to delivering preventive care. HPR members, who represent the leading primary care professional organizations, discussed the components of a fully functional medical team, along with issues relating to quality, outcomes, and payment structures. The HPR members also continued to work collaboratively on high priority issues - immunizations and tobacco cessation.

The members reviewed the outline for a white paper on financial incentives for providers with the author, Dr. Mark Fendrick. A draft is expected to be discussed at the Fall 2011 meeting.

The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation and Partnership's National Chlamydia Coalition hosted a webinar on June 2 to explore how health plans can support increased chlamydia screening among their members. The adverse reproductive outcomes linked to chlamydia infection, including infertility, and the direct medical costs associated with the infection - more than $700 million annually - should give health plans an impetus to increase chlamydia screening rates.

Speakers included the director of CDC's Division of STD Prevention, a researcher from the Colorado School of Public Health, the vice president and chief medical officer of BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, and a health educator from Molina HealthCare. To view an archive of the webinar or to download copies of the presentations, please visit the NIHCM website.

Jennifer Jenson, Managing Senior Fellow and Director of Partnership's National Commission on Prevention Priorities (NCPP), was appointed to serve on the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee on Valuing Community-Based, Non-Clinical Prevention Programs. The prestigious committee will develop a framework to assess the value of community prevention policies and wellness strategies.

It's an important topic for public health and a familiar topic for Jenson, who has been working with the NCPP on a similar task - quantifying the value of 15 community interventions to reduce tobacco use and increase physical activity. The IOM Committee takes on a generic, broader question about how to value community prevention, while serving the same goal of improving population health by providing information about the value of community-based strategies.

Partnership's ActionToQuit State Grant Program is in full swing.  Partnership recently published a compilation of state case studies that outlines the tobacco cessation policy work of the grantees in 2010.  Specifically, grantees were asked to develop a state tobacco cessation alliance, hold a summit meeting for leaders and advocates, and create an action plan for their state.  Their work continues in 2011, with three new grantee states added to the program.

The ActionToQuit tobacco control listserv, which was launched in the fall of 2010, already exceeds 1,000 members. The listserv was created to share information about the latest tobacco control news, research, and policy initiatives. To sign up for the listserv, visit www.ActionToQuit.org.