News from NIH: the patient-centered medical home

Excerpt

In testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee, directors from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have described a transition in medicine from a reactive, acutely focused system of sick care to a proactive, life-focused system of health care [1, 2]. The exigencies for this change stem in part from a greater, predictive understanding of disease processes, which will allow for improved opportunities to prevent or intervene early in a patient’s life before damage occurs and before high-cost treatment is required. It also stems from a need to cope with the growing prevalence of noncommunicable disease [3], making it necessary to improve coordination of care in support of patient self-management. To support these changes, systems of care must evolve. As authors of the Institute of Medicine’s report titled “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” concluded, the current health system with its fragmented nature, inadequate communication channels, and a contradictory incentive system is inadequate to the task [4]. New systems must emerge that are patient-centered by design, built on continuous healing relationships, infused with a free flow of data and knowledge, supported by the twenty-first century information systems, and founded on best available scientific evidence [5]. …