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MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

The mission of the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation is to bridge the worlds of research and clinical care, both within Group Health and nationally. Named for a Group Health founder and pioneering physician, W.A. MacColl, MD, the Institute was created in 1992. Its goal is to develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovations in healthcare delivery:

"We develop tools and expertise to advance Group Health’s commitment to ‘population-based’ or ‘planned’ care," says Edward H. Wagner, MD, MPH, the senior investigator at Center for Health Studies (CHS) who directs the Institute. This helps the system deliver services that can meet predictable health care needs among groups of patients with common chronic illnesses, using interventions strongly grounded in clinical evidence.

Since the mid-1990s, the Institute has focused on research and quality improvement efforts to improve the quality of care for the chronically ill, with the goal of bridging the gap between patients’ needs for comprehensive chronic care and health care delivery systems originally designed mainly to treat acute illness. Recent work has included fostering regional collaborations between health care systems, local government and, in some cases, purchasers to work together to improve the delivery of care to the chronically ill. New projects also include assisting the small medical practice in implementing the principles of the Chronic Care Model—a visual compilation of evidence, developed by the MacColl Institute, about how to deliver effective chronic illness care. In addition, the Institute has an ongoing interest in studying the organizational factors related to the delivery of cancer care in health systems, and applying new improved models of primary care for older adults.

The Institute is the national program office for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s program on Improving Chronic Illness Care. More information can be found at www.improvingchroniccare.org. Group Health provides core funding for the Institute.

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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