Ninth National Quality Colloquium from Boston

We will finish the Ninth Annual Quality Colloquium here in Boston tomorrow morning. It has been a spectacular three days from the special pre course on quality and safety to the plenary talk from ATUL GAWANDE, to the closing panel today on the role of Governance in Quality. The leaders of the nation's three Masters Degree Programs in Quality were also all here from Jefferson,Northwestern and the Univ of Illinois. The panel on curricular innovations in quality featured these three leading groups and the challenges that they face today in creating new materials for the classroom---both in person and on line.We also talked about the scholarship of quality featuring the editors of the four leading journals in the field. They discussed the future of medical publishing, finding skilled peer reviewers,and the impact of health reform. We also heard from experts in connecting with the empowered patient on line,ranging from the now famous "e-patient Dave" to the leader of the Center for Connected Health at Harvard. To top it all off, the CMO of CMS came to Boston to promote the accountability agenda. To me, it all means NO OUTCOME---NO INCOME....we better get used to this new era of accountability and transparency. Wish you were all here!!Learn more about this amazing conference at www.qualitycolloquium.com. DAVID NASH