The High Value Practice Academic Alliance (HVPAA) hosted a national conference in October celebrating high-value medical care through the presentation of more than 100 quality improvement projects aimed at reducing low-value practice.
Consisting of more than 80 academic medical centers led by Johns Hopkins Medicine, the alliance is dedicated to the task of providing high-value medical practice to patients, in no small part by eliminating unnecessary tests, procedures, and treatments.
Nearly 200 clinicians, house staff members, and administrators from 70 medical centers attended the conference, which displayed 140 podium and poster presentations.
"This alliance is a great platform to combine all academic health centers so we can learn from each other and share best practices," said Gulshan Sharma, vice president and chief medical and clinical innovation officer at the University of Texas Medical Branch. "Appropriateness in testing and treatment of patients is going to be key, regardless of the United States region where we practice."
HVPAA advocates for providing insight to the next generation of physicians to promote the importance of high-value care. They host a yearlong future leaders program for 80 house staff members designed to promote an understanding of the process required to successfully implement value-related measures.
HVPAA's goal is to provide the most efficient care without risking patient safety.
"For too long, we've accepted the narrative that patient harm is inevitable. But it's not. Zero patient harm is an achievable goal and one that we have a moral mandate to pursue," said Peter Pronovost, director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine. "One of the founding principles of the HVPAA is to ensure that patient safety is not compromised by efforts to reduce unnecessary practice."