Information management for clinicians.

Clinicians are bombarded with information daily by social media, mainstream television news, e-mail, and print and online reports. They usually do not have much control over these information streams and thus are passive recipients, which means they get more noise than signal. Accessing, absorbing, organizing, storing, and retrieving useful medical information can improve patient care.

A model for training medical student innovators: the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care Abundance Agents of Change program.

Background: In 2013, the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care established the Abundance Agents of Change (AoC) program to promote interprofessional learning and innovation, increase partnership between 15 academic and community health centers (CHCs) in Boston's most under-served communities, and increase medical student interest in primary care careers.

Methods: The AoC is modeled in the form of a 'grants challenge', offering $20,000 to interprofessional student teams to develop an innovative solution that addresses a healthcare delivery need identified by CHCs. The program's initial two years were characterized by a four-stage process which included working with CHCs and crafting a request for proposals, forming interprofessional 20 student teams comprising students from across and outside of Harvard University, training students using a systems-based innovation curriculum, and performing program evaluation.

A population management system for improving colorectal cancer screening in a primary care setting.

Rationale: Provision of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in primary care is suboptimal; failure to observe screening guidelines poses unnecessary risks to patients and doctors.

Aims And Objectives: Implement a population management system for CRC screening; evaluate impact on compliance with evidence-based guidelines.

Design: A quasi-experimental, prospective quality improvement study design using pre-post-analyses with concurrent controls.

An integrated approach to surgery and primary care systems strengthening in low- and middle-income countries: building a platform to deliver across the spectrum of disease.

Background: Surgical services in low- and middle income countries (LMICs) must be considered within the context of a coordinated strategy for building primary care systems. Weak front-line primary care systems lead to delayed presentation and poor follow-up of patients with surgical illness, increasing the risk of poor outcomes.

Methods: Here we propose a framework to integrating surgery and primary care, organized around basic primary care principles of access, longitudinal care, coordination, integration and equity.

Health Systems Innovation at Academic Health Centers: Leading in a New Era of Health Care Delivery.

Challenged by demands to reduce costs and improve service delivery, the U.S. health care system requires transformational change.

The practice perspective on transformation: experience and learning from the frontlines.

Background: The transition of a primary care practice to a patient-centered medical home can be arduous. It requires time and resources from staff and leaders. Evidence to date suggests that not all medical homes are equally successful and that there is a substantial difference between the achievement of medical home recognition and meaningful transformation.

Implementation of a collaborative care management program with buprenorphine in primary care: a comparison between opioid-dependent patients and patients with chronic pain using opioids nonmedically.

Objective: To implement a collaborative care management program with buprenorphine in a primary care clinic.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: A busy urban academic primary care clinic affiliated with a tertiary care hospital.

Massage therapy for patients with metastatic cancer: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: The study objectives were to determine the feasibility and effects of providing therapeutic massage at home for patients with metastatic cancer.

Design: This was a randomized controlled trial.

Settings/location: Patients were enrolled at Oncology Clinics at a large urban academic medical center; massage therapy was provided in patients' homes.