JULY 2024
July 19, 2024: Making and Sustaining Change in Home Hospital and Surgical Safety
Before 2020, there were about two dozen home hospital programs. Now, there are more than 300. These new programs need support to succeed. The Home Hospital Early Adopters Accelerator created 20 knowledge products to help organizations develop and support their programs. Our Home Hospital team found that one year later, these knowledge products are still useful and high-quality, with potential to improve patient care.
JUNE 2024
June 28, 2024: Tailoring Serious Illness Care in Safety Net Settings
Our identities and experiences shape how we think and talk about serious illness. For patients from marginalized communities, it’s especially important that communication respects their identities, culture, and experiences. A qualitative study of the Serious Illness Care Program in safety net health systems sheds new light on patient and clinician experiences and what is needed to address current disparities.
June 11, 2024: A Program to Reduce Delayed Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer
When a patient receives a positive result in colorectal cancer screening, timely follow-up is key to diagnosis and treatment. When patients miss this follow-up, the Ambulatory Safety Net (ASN) program can “catch” them. The ASN program – developed with health systems in Boston and implemented as part of a learning collaborative – has already identified over 5,000 patients with over 1,500 completing testing.
Read the full paper in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
MAY 2024
May 16, 2024: Can Race Dialogues Build Trust in Health Care?
Conversations about race and racism in health care are hard, but necessary. Our Serious Illness Care team used their expertise in guiding difficult conversations to make TRACE, a tool to facilitate race dialogues. In a new blog from Associate Faculty Justin Sanders, MD, MSc and Senior Project Coordinator Catherine Schofield, learn how these dialogues can foster more equitable care.
APRIL 2024
April 26, 2024: Using Scorecards to Strengthen Primary Care
In a new video, Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH shares the value of using scorecards to improve primary care. Work that began in 2015 with the Primary Healthcare Performance Initiative (PHCPI) to evaluate primary care systems around the world has led to new efforts to measure and improve the United States’ struggling primary care system. Our collaborators at Massachusetts Health Quality Partners and Milbank Memorial Fund have led new research on the potential of these scorecards in the U.S. and developed a dashboard for exploring the 2024 National Primary Care Scorecard.
April 12, 2024: A New Tool to Give Your Checklist a Check-Up
BMJ Quality & Safety recognized a paper from the Safe Surgery/Safe Systems team as one of the top articles of 2023. The paper introduced CheckPOINT, a simple and reliable tool to assess whether an organization is implementing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist effectively. Insights gathered with the tool can identify focus areas for improving Checklist performance.
MARCH 2024
March 28, 2024: CMS to Offer Primary Care More Flexible Funding
In January 2025, the CMS Innovation Center will launch a new primary care funding model to encourage team-based, person-centered, and equitable care. The ACO Primary Care Flex Model will provide predictable monthly payments to give practices more flexibility to offer services beyond traditional office visits – such as reaching out to patients proactively and including interdisciplinary teams – that are underfunded in current fee-for-service systems. Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH contributed to the design of this innovative model.
March 1, 2024: Mapping Momentum in Africa’s Medical Education
Medical schools are crucial to training the future health workforce and supporting health care systems, but data on medical schools in Africa have been outdated and incomplete. An investigation from the Better Evidence team found that there are 444 medical schools on the continent and compiled an updated, accurate list that can inform investment, resource allocation, and policy formation.
FEBRUARY 2024
February 15, 2024: Measuring the Health of U.S. Primary Care
Scorecards can be effective tools for illustrating health systems’ strengths and challenges and illuminating the path to improvement. In the U.S., scorecards can be used to strengthen primary care and work toward goals set in a landmark 2021 NASEM Report. Ariadne Labs’ Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Joey Ross, MPA, and June-Ho Kim, MD, MPH, join Massachusetts Health Quality Partners CEO Barbara Rabson and Milbank Memorial Fund President Christopher Koller in a new Health Affairs article.
February 1, 2024: Reimagining Childbirth
The Studio at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health hosted “Reimagining the childbirth experience,” a panel discussing strategies to improve maternal health in the United States. Delivery Decisions Initiative Director Amber Weiseth, DNP, RNC-OB joined an expert panel to discuss low-tech, high-impact solutions in maternal health, highlighting the positive impact TeamBirth has made in 150+ birthing facilities around the country.
JANUARY 2024
January 11, 2024: How Primary Care Saved Lives in Costa Rica
Primary Health Care Fellow Madeline Pesec, MD, ScM, co-authored a new study isolating the effect of Costa Rica’s primary health care system on long-term mortality. The study took advantage of a natural experiment, which was possible because of the way the country rolled out its transformative primary health care model in the 1990s. Mortality rates fell by 13% nine years after rollout, with greater impact for people over age 65 (22% decrease) and people with cardiovascular conditions (19% decrease).
DECEMBER 2023
December 14, 2023: Asaf Bitton Recognized with Primary Care Leadership Award
In a speech delivered at the 2023 Barbara Starfield Awards Dinner, Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, recognizes the challenges primary care clinicians are facing and emphasizes the important role of hope in creating change. “Hope is a strategic imperative. Hope is a discipline to be cultivated. Hope is not optional if you wish to see any change in this world,” said Bitton.
NOVEMBER 2023
November 9, 2023: TeamBirth is a Model for Person-Centered Birthing Care
In an article in OBG Management, members of the Delivery Decisions Initiative detail how TeamBirth supports shared decision-making to give patients the role they want in labor and delivery. Data shows that TeamBirth increases patients’ sense of autonomy, and, in a survey, 90% of clinicians agreed they would recommend TeamBirth for other labor and delivery units.
November 2, 2023: New Grants Spark Innovation in Nursing Home and Childbirth Care
The Ariadne Labs Spark Grant program provides support for new and early-stage ideas to make health care safer, more equitable, and more integrated for patients everywhere. Now in its 11th year, the program has funded more than 20 projects. The work of this year’s three grantees will focus on improving quality of life in nursing homes, preparing pregnant people for what to expect in early labor, and enhancing physical design of childbirth spaces to improve outcomes and experiences.
OCTOBER 2023
October 20, 2023: Operating Room Crisis Checklists have gone digital
Ariadne Labs’ Safe Surgery/Safe Systems team has released an updated set of fully-digitized, customizable Operating Room Crisis Checklists. The compendium of 17 Checklists was developed in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary expert advisory board of international leaders in anesthesiology, pharmacology, patient safety, and more. The Checklists serve as cognitive aids for operating room teams to respond quickly and effectively in moments of crisis.
October 10, 2023: How does hospital management affect clinical care?
The quality of hospital management plays an important role in the success of efforts to improve clinical care; however, hospitals often have limited insight into management quality. In partnership with 2018 Spark Grantee Raffaella Sadun, PhD, MSc, the U.S. Census Bureau has released data from the first at-scale measurement of managerial quality across U.S. hospitals. Researchers can use this data to study connections between managerial quality and quality of care.
SEPTEMBER 2023
September 22, 2023: How two New Jersey hospitals are improving teamwork and communication in childbirth
New Jersey is on #TeamBirth
This week, two New Jersey hospitals celebrated the launch of their TeamBirth initiatives. Virtua Mount Holly Hospital and Saint Peter’s University Hospital join four other implementers in the state. The launches are part of the state’s Nurture NJ program led by first lady Tammy Murphy, and they’re supported by the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute.
- NJ Spotlight News: Goal of ‘TeamBirth’ program is to improve outcomes for women, infants
- Video: ‘TeamBirth’ program to improve results for women, infants
- Saint Peter’s University Hospital to Launch “TeamBirth”
- TeamBirth NJ Launches at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital
- New Jersey Business Magazine: Saint Peter’s University Hospital Launches ‘TeamBirth’
AUGUST 2023
August 11, 2023: To improve care, start with clinical culture
Launching a new program is one thing. Changing clinical practice is another. A new paper by members of the Serious Illness Care Program team in The Joint Commission Journal on Patient Safety and Quality analyzes elements of clinical culture and implementation that facilitated serious illness communication practice change in five health systems. Insights from this research can offer a roadmap for health systems implementing the Serious Illness Care Program or other quality improvement initiatives.
JULY 2023
July 27, 2023: How does hospital management affect clinical care?
The quality of hospital management plays an important role in the success of efforts to improve clinical care; however, hospitals often have limited insight into management quality. In partnership with 2018 Spark Grantee Raffaella Sadun, PhD, MSc, the U.S. Census Bureau has released data from the first at-scale measurement of managerial quality across U.S. hospitals. Researchers can use this data to study connections between managerial quality and quality of care.
JUNE 2023
June 28, 2023: Birthing Together
ᎢᏧᎳᎭ ιᎾιᏘᏅᏍᎬ is the word Cherokee community matriarchs chose to capture TeamBirth. Misha Severson, MN, RNC-OB, co-authors an editorial in JOGNN on implementing the program at Cherokee Nation birthing centers and constructing new paradigms in health systems to improve care for Indigenous families.
June 16, 2023: What 8,100 clinicians have to say about primary care
A new paper in NEJM Catalyst warns that primary care is in crisis. Co-authored by Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, the paper shares findings from the largest national survey of primary care clinicians conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings highlight clinician barriers to delivering equitable, high-quality patient care, and the authors outline emergency steps needed to stabilize and sustain primary care before it’s too late.
June 1, 2023: Improving Birthing Care in Zanzibar
Last month, WAJAMAMA, Zanzibar’s first holistic maternal health clinic, and the State University of Zanzibar launched a newly renovated Simulation Lab at the university. In collaboration with Ariadne Labs’ Delivery Decisions Initiative, Laerdal Global Health, and Georgetown University, the partners refinished the space with new simulation equipment to support nursing and midwifery students in building the skills needed to deliver high quality patient care. The launch comes as part of a larger effort to address rising maternal and infant mortality rates in Zanzibar.
MAY 2023
May 19, 2023: Anti-Racism in Serious Illness Care
In an interview, Karen Bullock, PhD, LICSW, FGSA, APHSW-C, discusses how racism impacts our health care systems and what steps can be taken to begin to create change. Bullock, who is the Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor in the Boston College School of Social Work, will present on “Anti-Racist Practices in Serious Illness Care” during Ariadne Labs’ June 13th – 14th Serious Illness Care Program Summit: Driving Equity in Serious Illness Communication and Care.
May 3, 2023: Why we need to talk about equity in Serious Illness Care
Erik Fromme, MD, MCR, FAAHPM, and Stacey Downey, MA, shared details of the upcoming Serious Illness Care Program Summit: Driving Equity in Serious Illness Communication and Care. The virtual, CME-eligible Summit will feature workshops and presentations from national experts in serious illness care, palliative care, health equity, and more. Participants will gain early access to the Serious Illness Care Program’s all-new digital learning modules, and a limited number of seats will be available for a new simulation-based training in how to use the Serious Illness Conversation Guide.
APRIL 2023
April 21, 2023: Celebrating 10 Years of Impact: Ariadne Labs’ Anniversary Video
In recognition of Ariadne Labs’ 10-year anniversary, hear from our leaders on how we are rising to the emerging challenges facing today’s health care systems.
April 6, 2023: Measuring and Improving Primary Health Care around the World
Measuring and Improving Primary Health Care: Tools from PHCPI: A Reference Guide
The Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) released a reference guide summarizing the tools and resources developed since the partnership’s formation in 2015. It details the groundbreaking progress made in understanding, measuring, and improving primary health care. Though the partnership has concluded, these tools will continue to serve health system leaders in advocating for PHC to make health systems more resilient and responsive, while improving the quality and equity of care.
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