Reasons to go the DMAA Forum 08

The Annual DMAA confab is less than a week away. In addition to hearing the latest in population management, seeing old friends and making new ones and enhancing your professional development, here's another reason to go, straight from the DMAA eNews:

'There will be a keynote panel Nov. 25 at featuring four thought leaders for an informative discussion of approaches to integrating population health improvement into the patient-centered medical home. This special presentation will feature representatives of organizations delivering solutions in collaboration with primary care practices. Panelists will explore the successful fit of population-based strategies in the medical home from the perspectives of health plans, Medicaid programs, disease management organizations and integrated delivery systems.

Panelists for the morning presentation include:

* Ricardo Guggenheim, MD, McKesson Health Solutions
* Lisa M. Latts, MD, MSPH, MBA, FACP, WellPoint Inc.
* Paul J. Wallace, MD, Kaiser Permanente

Former DMAA Board member and population health expert Jaan Sidorov, MD, will moderate the discussion. Dr. Sidorov writes the popular Disease Management Care Blog and speaks nationally and internationally on health services research, disease management and managed care insurance.

"This is without question a must-attend presentation," DMAA President and CEO Tracey Moorhead said. "These are exceptional speakers who will provide Forum attendees invaluable insights into the synergy between the medical home and population health."'

The self promoting DMCB does not disagree with Ms. Moorhead. The overlap between the medical home and disease management is a critically important topic and Dr. Sidorov intends to squeeze each of the panelists for every insight they can muster.

By the way, there are plenty of other reasons to go, according to the latest issue of the Population Health Management Journal, including:

Hearing about transparency from the very famous Elizabeth McGlynn PhD and David Wennberg MD. Reminder: Dr. McGlynn wrote that article in the New England Journal of Medicine on how the health care system fails to deliver basic quality. The DMCB thinks that if she talks, it should listen.

Learning from Elain Mischler MD about the DMAA's market survey on what the real wold thinks about disease management and wellness.

The role of pay for performance in Medicaid disease management, thanks to James Bush MD of Wyoming and David Kelley MD of Pennsylvania.

The juicy details behind LifeMasters' program for dual eligibles in Florida, straight from Linda Mango of CMS and Christobel Selecky, former DMAA Prez.

Health promotion and disease prevention guru Vic Stretcher MD will be talking about the return on investment of an interesting program in Hawaii. Vic's methodology is worth learning about because it has widespread credibility.

The ever actuarial Ian Duncan will discuss the more sublime aspects of wellness program evalution using risk factor change. Have things gotten to the point where there is no room for amateurs? This is your chance to find out.

Sue Jennings PhD will update us about the latest update in the DMAA outcomes methodology. This is worth the price of admission because that's the process that you can use to tell your CFO whether your program saved any money. Ignore this at your own peril.

Jefferson's Neil Goldfarb MD will update us on what the medical literature tells us, and doesn't tell us, about obesity management. When you return home, you'll be able to quote from this session and amaze your friends and silence your naysayers.

David Brumley MD and partner in crime Sarah Sampsel will tell us what a major New England insurer is doing to improve obesity assessment and treatment. Dr. Brumley has a two-fer, because he'll also be talking about the real world support of the Medical Home.

The very strategic Vince Kuraitis will challenge us about being leaders or laggards in the march toward data interoperability. This is the IT glue that will bind disease management to the rest of the world.

There will be plenty of other excellent sessions that are too numerous to mention here.