Designing a large-scale multilevel improvement initiative: the improving performance in practice program.

Improving Performance in Practice (IPIP) is a large system intervention designed to align efforts and motivate the creation of a tiered system of improvement at the national, state, practice, and patient levels, assisting primary-care physicians and their practice teams to assess and measurably improve the quality of care for chronic illness and preventive services using a common approach across specialties. The long-term goal of IPIP is to create an ongoing, sustained system across multiple levels of the health care system to accelerate improvement. IPIP core program components include alignment of leadership and leadership accountability, promotion of partnerships to promote health care quality, development of attractive incentives and motivators, regular measurement and transparent sharing of performance data, participation in organized quality improvement efforts using a standardized model, development of enduring collaborative improvement networks, and practice-level support.

From research to policy to practice: prescription for success for students with learning disabilities.

As a community, physicians with expertise in child development and an appreciation of school-related challenges are uniquely positioned to enhance the well-being of children with specific learning disabilities. Efforts in such areas as differential diagnosis, enhancing communication between home and school and among parents and related service providers, accountability for effective and timely intervention, advocacy, and the application of scientific approaches to instruction and progress monitoring are among the ways in which the medical community can support children with special learning needs.

Assessing practice-based learning and improvement.

Background: Practice-based learning and improvement (PBLI) is 1 of 6 general competencies expected of physicians who graduate from an accredited residency education program in the United States and is an anticipated requirement for those who wish to maintain certification by the member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties. This article describes methods used to assess PBLI.

Summary: Six electronic databases were searched using several search terms pertaining to PBLI.

Specialty board certification and clinical outcomes: the missing link.

Purpose: Specialty board certification status is often used as a standard of excellence, but no systematic review has examined the link between certification and clinical outcomes. The authors evaluated published studies tracking clinical outcomes and certification status.

Method: Data sources consisted of studies cited between 1966 and July 1999 in OVID-Medline, psychological abstracts (PsycLit), and the Educational Research Information Clearinghouse (ERIC).