The Population Health Impact Institute Wants You

In a prior post examining the not so good, the very bad and the downright ugly of disease management company white papers, the Disease Management Care Blog mentioned the Population Health Impact Institute (PHI Institute or just PHII for short). DMCB colleague Tom Wilson tried to post a response but was stymied by Google blog's log-in process, so he emailed directly. The DMCB thought the thoughts were so good that they warranted a separate posting.

PHII is a non-profit, 501c3 organization made up of individuals who believe that transparency of methods in disease management and other population-based approaches to care will lead to a) better methods of attribution, b) better programs, and c) better overall health care in the country. For more than a year, dozens of volunteers at the PHII have discussed and debated, debated and discussed, and finally emerged with a set of "methods evaluation process" standards that are practical, easy to use and 'evidence-based.' They can be applied to virtually ANY of the varied methodologies used to assess population health programs today.

This is a new era of 'take a second look' before buying anything. As a result, we believe that programs that are willing to open up their black box of methods - in a structured way - will have competitive advantage in this new marketplace. This does not mean that proprietary processes used in interventions necessarily need to be revealed. Under the PHII process, these business assets can remain top secret. A disease management organization's revelation of attribution methods in our structured, peer-reviewed way can be accomplished in a private reconciliation between buyers and sellers, in a public white paper, or a peer-reviewed journal. In fact, we've found that even peer-reviewed papers can be flawed – especially in the methodology sections where eyes gloss over for many readers -- and that this structured process should be beneficial there as well. In sum, the PHII approach can help buyers closely examine the claims in these manuscripts and separate fact from speculation.

Check out our web site to learn more. You are also invited to attend one of our educational workshops at meetings held in conjunction with two other non-profit organizations: Institute for Health and Productivity Management (April) and Case Management Society of America (June).

If you find any of this really interesting, we are always open to new volunteers. Feel free to email us.