Digital Quality Summit 2019: Highlights

July 22, 2019 · Jazmyne Carter

Did you miss the 2019 Digital Quality Summit?

For three days, in Boston, Massachusetts, many people from all walks of health care and technology, filled conference rooms to learn more about the future of health care quality measures.

Here’s a quick rundown:

Day One

John D. Halamka, MD, MS, International Healthcare Innovation Professor, Harvard Medical School shared that the future for new approaches to quality measurement in 2019 is very bright. He explained that despite government’s role in digital health care quality, the private sector and foundations will be key in pushing the movement of quality measurement.

Day Two

Margaret E. O’Kane, Chuck Jaffe, and Dana Gelb Safran continued the discussion on quality measurement and provided insight for what’s next for data quality measurement.

https://www.ncqa.org/videos/an-introduction-to-digital-measures/

“It’s urgent we get this data (measures) aligned. — That’s why NCQA was created, to align quality measurement. Sounds good, but it’s hard.” Margaret E. O’Kane, President, NCQA

Craig Samitt, MD, MBA, President and CEO, Craig Samitt MD, MBA, President and CEO, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota stole the show with his expansive list of wants for the future of health care and quality!

Paraphrasing: “I want to focus on whole health. –I want to measure wellness better and move from measuring “clinical quality” to “health quality”. More is not always better. —I want consistency, transparency, convenience, affordability. I want health care to be equitable.”

Day Three

Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), opened the third day with a history of MAeHC as well as challenges and expectations for the future. He elaborated on how the use of manual records can produce incomplete data. Dr. Tripathi reminded everyone that there may be a lot of work ahead, but there are signs of real progress.

NCQA’s very own, Paul Cotton, Director of Federal Affairs wrapped up the summit by sharing the top five challenges:

• Alignment of measures & reporting parameters
• Expectations vs. Reality of EHRs
• Provider vs. Plan-level measures
• Varying levels of readiness
• Measure Data Accuracy.

Thank you

One day at a time, one measurement at a time, we can achieve better quality. Thank you to all our sponsors,speakers and attendees. We look forward to seeing you next year.