Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is appointing its first-ever Chief Value Medical Officer, acclaimed specialist in healthcare quality measurement and improvement, Catherine H. MacLean, M.D., Ph.D.
Catherine H. MacLean, M.D., Ph.D.: HSS’ First-Ever Chief Value Medical Officer
2 min read Premium comments
Dr. MacLean will be co-leading the Value Management Office, an established group focused on improving the way HSS defines, measures, and achieves value. Dr. MacLean will also help lead efforts to improve external quality transparency, giving consumers and other key stakeholders the information they need to make informed care decisions.
Dr. MacLean, a rheumatologist, earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology from University of California; a Medical Degree from Washington University School of Medicine; and a Doctorate in Health Services from UCLA School of Public Health. Prior to joining HSS, she served as the staff vice president at WellPoint’s Center for Quality Measures and Improvement.
Dr. MacLean told OTW, “First of all, I will work with the experts at HSS and engage with the broader orthopedic community to concretely define how to best measure ‘value’ in terms of both quality and cost. A key part of this work will be to define the outcomes that matter to our patients and then work backwards to ensure the care processes needed to achieve these outcomes are executed in the most effective and efficient way.”
Asked what initiatives she would like to put in place in order to increase external quality transparency, Dr. MacLean added, “Transparency should extend, in its next phase, beyond the current public measures to measuring the outcomes that matter most to patients and communicating these in a way that patients can understand for decision-making. I would like to see the collection and reporting of these measures incorporated into clinical practice and reported to each of our patients, the same way we would share lab results, so that our patients know how well we did for them in terms of achieving those outcomes. The next step would be to make available to current and prospective patients, policymakers and payers, reports on how we do on a population basis. We are exploring the best way to communicate this information and look forward to working with others to develop normative standards and methods to report quality in a manner that is valid, fair and reliable.”
React:
Discussion
This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
Join the conversation
Orthopedic professionals are discussing this. Sign in and upgrade to read every comment and add your voice.