The American Medical Group Foundation (AMGF) has announced participants in a collaborative dedicated to finding best practices in managing patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a news release from the American Medical Group Association (AMGA). AMGF is providing funds for quality improvement initiatives focusing on care management for patients with RA. Recipients are IPAs, medical groups, academic practices, and integrated delivery systems that responded to a request for proposals distributed in April 2014.
The Best Practices Learning Collaborative is designed for organizations that are working to improve the care of RA patients. With the groups working together, each will facilitate the adoption, discovery, and spread of care processes that will improve the way in which RA patients experience the healthcare system. The AMGA news release notes that the RA collaborative is intended to leverage key learning and facilitate a how-to approach.
The groups participating in the new collaborative attended a Kick-Off meeting in Nashville, Tenn, which provided a chance for the groups to network with their peers and officially present their team’s project to the collaborative. A number of medical groups, including groups in Ill, Calif, Ohio, New York, and Texas, received $10,000 educational grants to support their quality improvement efforts through participating in the Managing Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) Learning Collaborative,
Two additional medical groups were also invited to participate on an unfunded basis. The RA Learning Collaborative is supported by an Advisory Committee of physicians and quality improvement experts to help guide the development of the group.
Donald W. Fisher, PhD, CAE, president and CEO of AMGA, states, “Participation in the AMGF Best Practices RA Collaborative will give participants mission-critical experience in engaging specialty departments such as rheumatology in performance measurement and improvement.”
Source: AMGA
