December 4, 1998

"Massachusetts is home to the best in health care. The Institute for Health Policy will continue and expand that heritage."

-Sen. Edward Kennedy

The MGH and Partners HealthCare System recently launched an institute that is dedicated to conducting world-class research into policy issues that affect the current health care system.

The MGH-Partners Institute for Health Policy, directed by David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, of MGH General Medicine, is an organization of researchers and health care professionals committed to exploring science and medical policy as well as finding answers to questions related to the organization and financing of health care services. It includes two centers: The Center for Health Policy Research, which conducts research and trains scholars on health policy; and The Center for Health Systems Design and Evaluation, which assists the MGH and Partners in the design and evaluation of health care systems.

"The institute is dedicated to the concept that world-class health services research can be enhanced by close contact with the problems and concerns of an operating academic health system," said Blumenthal. "With the available resources and access to the expertise of affiliated organizations, the institute can conduct a broad array of scholarly and analytic activities in addressing the challenges that our current health system faces."

More than 150 guests gathered Nov. 20 at the John F. Kennedy Library to formally launch the institute at a celebratory symposium and dinner. Sen. Edward Kennedy served as the evening's keynote speaker, discussing health policy in the next Congress. He also applauded the formation of the institute. "Massachusetts is home to the best in health care," he said. "The Institute for Health Policy will continue and expand that heritage."

The symposium featured James J. Mongan, MD, MGH president, who spoke about access to care; Dennis Ausiello, MD, MGH physician-in-chief, who spoke about science policy; and Barbara McNeil, MD, PhD, professor of Health Policy at Harvard Medical School (HMS), who spoke about quality of care.

The institute comprises more than 20 researchers and staff members with expertise in managed care, primary care, quality of care, risk adjustment, program evaluation, academic health centers, academic and industrial relationships and access to care.

Academically, the institute is affiliated with the General Medical Division at the MGH and the Department of Medicine and Health Care Policy at HMS. These affiliations, said Blumenthal, give the institute the benefits of exposure to common problems of health care delivery and access to some of the nation's leading health services and outcomes researchers.