National Academy of Medicine and IHPI: New members & more

Today in Washington, the National Academy of Medicine inducted its newest members, and announced those newly elected who will be inducted next fall.  

IHPI member Mark Fendrick, M.D. is among those formally entering this august honorary body today, along with five U-M colleagues. Read more about the U-M faculty in this year's entering class here.

Also today, IHPI member Marita Titler, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, was among those announced as members of the next NAM class, following recent elections. Read more about her and her U-M colleagues in the newly elected class.

At the same time, two other IHPI members have news related to the NAM, and its affiliate the Institute of Medicine: 

James Burke, M.D., M.S., has been named NAM's 2015 Gilbert S. Omenn Fellow, and will have an opportunity to work part-time on policy-relevant work at NAM while maintaining his position in the U-M Department of Neurology. The fellowship, named for IHPI member and longtime IOM/NAM member Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., is part of the Anniversary Fellows Program that enables talented, early career health and science scholars to participate actively in the work of the Academies and to further their careers as future leaders in the field. 

John Ayanian, M.D., MPP, IHPI director, has been named to the IOM Committee on Accounting for Socioeconomic Status in Medicare Payment Programs. This consensus study will be carried out by a panel of experts from across the nation who, like Dr. Ayanian, have experience in studying the social determinants of health.

It will: 

• recommend a definition of socioeconomic status (SES) relevant to Medicare quality measurement and payment programs;
• identify the SES determinants which have been demonstrated to impact health outcomes;
• specify criteria that could be used in determining which SES factors should be accounted for in Medicare quality measurement and payment programs.
• suggest which SES factors could be incorporated into quality measurement and/or payment methodologies
• identify methods that could be used in the application of socioeconomic status factors to quality, resource use, or other measures used in Medicare payment programs
• recommend existing or new sources of data on these SES factors and/or strategies for data collection, while also identifying challenges to obtaining appropriate data and strategies for overcoming these challenges
• identify best practices of high-performing hospitals, health plans,and other providers that serve disproportionately higher shares of socioeconomically disadvantage populations and compare those best practices to practices of low-performing providers serving similar patient populations

In all, 13 members of IHPI have been elected members of the NAM: Fendrick, Titler, Ayanian, Omenn, James Bagian, M.D., P.E., William Barsan, M.D., Arline Geronimus, Sc.D., James House, Ph.D., Paula Lantz, Ph.D., M.S., M.A., Roderick Little, Ph.D., M.Sc., Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., Peter Polverini, D.D.S., D.M.Sc., and Kenneth Warner, Ph.D., M.Phil.