GOOD NEWS: Midland doctor selected to serve at leadership consortium

Jul. 1—MIDLAND — Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, of Midland has been named among 34 other senior leaders from National Quality Forum Member Organizations who have been selected to participate in its 2022 Leadership Consortium.

Patel has been a practicing internist in Midland, for nearly two decades. Patel currently serves as the Medical Director of the Lifestyle Medicine Center at Midland Health and has been an advocate for offering a variety of comprehensive lifestyle intervention programs under physician supervision. Patel serves on the Board of American College of Lifestyle Medicine and as Vice President of the Midland Quality Alliance, a clinically integrated network of physicians. She is a member of the National Quality Forum's 2021 Leadership Consortium and a founding member of the advisory board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine's Health Systems Council. Patel serves as the Chair of the Patient Care Subcommittee of ACLM's Health Systems Council as well as ACLM's Clinical Practice and Quality Advisory Panel. Patel has been awarded the prestigious status of Fellow of ACLM for her outstanding achievement in the field of Lifestyle Medicine. She co-founded Healthy City, a non-profit organization, to raise awareness of the benefits of plant-based nutrition within her community.

The Leadership Consortium is a prestigious and exclusive forum of multistakeholder healthcare experts representing NQF Member Organizations, where they share their collective thought leadership to identify actionable strategies to improve healthcare quality and drive lasting change in key areas. The group's guidance informs the direction of NQF programs and drives improvement across healthcare.

To strengthen the Leadership Consortium's impact for broader system improvement, NQF has modified the way its expert guidance will be put into action this year and in the future. Healthcare leaders will focus on identifying one top healthcare quality priority to serve as a springboard for an Implementation Collaborative in which Leadership Consortium participants will pilot test strategies for improvement over a 12-month period. The phased approach and creation of the Implementation Collaborative is an addition to the 2022 structure to maximize impact.

"To achieve meaningful change, operational learnings and quality measurement need to be inextricably tied. The addition of the Implementation Collaborative to the Leadership Consortium is not only critical, but a unique multistakeholder opportunity to pilot promising strategies, which in turn will inform prospects for driving impactful change," Leadership Consortium Co-Chair Reena Duseja, MD, MS, Senior Advisor, Office of Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Quality and Patient Safety, Veterans Health Administration, said.

The group will hold its first meeting in July. During this meeting, the members of the Leadership Consortium will discuss six urgent issues in the current healthcare landscape, including the collection and use of social determinants of health data and the improvement of patient safety in ambulatory care settings. The group will prioritize one topic as a focus area, then collectively identify and recommend improvement opportunities to be tested during the Implementation Collaborative throughout 2023.

"We have been gathering feedback from our Member Organizations to elevate the impact of this forum. They are eager for the opportunity to maximize their contributions to continuous improvement within the field and it was encouraging to see their overwhelming enthusiasm in the high volume of applications received. We are looking forward to working with this stellar group of national leaders to drive meaningful change in healthcare," Dana Gelb Safran, ScD, President & CEO, NQF, said.

"NQF has become an integral component of American healthcare's efforts to improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of care delivery," Leadership Consortium Co-Chair Peter Angood, MD, President & CEO, American Association for Physician Leadership, said. "The Leadership Consortium continues to address significantly important topic areas by identifying the issues of concern, and then providing actionable solutions and next steps for helping to refine approaches on these various topic areas. By doing so, the Leadership Consortium itself is now becoming an important and influential group within healthcare."

Other esteemed members of the 2022 Leadership Consortium are:

— Co-Chair: Peter Angood, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, MCCM, FAAPL, President & CEO, American Association for Physician Leadership

— Co-Chair: Reena Duseja, MD, MS, Senior Advisor, Office of Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Quality and Patient Safety, Veterans Health Administration

— Girma Alemu, MD, MPH, Public Health Analyst, Health Resources and Services Administration

— Ashrith Amarnath, MD, MS-SHCD, Senior Medical Director, Covered California

— Jane Brock, MD, MSPH, Medical Director, Federal Health Solutions, Telligen

— Betty Chu, MD, MBA, Senior Vice President, Associate Chief Clinical Officer/Chief Quality Officer, Henry Ford Health System

— Dan Culica, MD, MA, PhD, Senior Program Specialist, Texas Health and Human Services Commission

— Mary Ditri, DHA, FHELA, FACHE, Vice President, Community Health, New Jersey Hospital Association

— Eileen Esposito, DNP, MPA, RN, AMB-BC, CPHQ, Board Member, Nursing Alliance for Quality Care

— Shelley Fuld Nasso, MPP, CEO, National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship

— Susan Gaffney, Executive Vice President of Membership, Development, and Events, National Health Council

— Shawn Griffin, MD, FAAFP, President & CEO, URAC

— Hilary Hatch, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer, Phreesia

— Amy Helwig, MD, MS, Executive Vice President, RTI Health Advance

— Diana Jolles, PhD, CNM, Quality Liaison, American College of Nurse-Midwives

— Robert Jones, MD, Interim Associate Chief for Value Based Operations, Cleveland Clinic

— Loren Kirk, PharmD, CPHQ, CAE, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships, Pharmacy Quality Alliance

— Danielle Lloyd, MPH, Senior Vice President of Private Market Innovations and Quality Initiatives, America's Health Insurance Plans

— Julie Malloy, OTD, MOT, OTR/L, PMP, CPHQ, FNAP, Director of Quality, American Occupational Therapy Association

— Amy Minnich, MHSA, CPC, RN, Associate Vice President, Innovation Operations, Geisinger Health System

— Sarita Mohanty, MD, MPH, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer, The SCAN Foundation

— Dustin Nowaskie, MD, Founder & President, OutCare

— Ravi Parikh, MD, MPP, Senior Clinical Advisor, Coalition to Transform Advanced Care

— Carol Peden, MB ChB, MD, FRCA, FFICM, MPH, Executive Director for Clinical Quality, BlueCross BlueShield Association

— Jade Perdue-Puli, Acting Deputy Center Director, Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

— Rebecca Perez, MSN, RN, CCM, Sr. Manager of Education and CMSA Foundation Executive Director, Case Management Society of America

— Kannan Ramar, MBBS, MD, Patient Safety Officer, Mayo Clinic

— Darryl Roberts, PhD, MS, RN, FHIMSS, FAAN, Principal Scientist, General Dynamics Information Technology

— Kristin Russell, MD, MBA, Associate Vice President, Clinical Transformation, Humana

— William Sigmund, MD, MHS, FACC, FACP, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Becton Dickinson (BD)

— Samantha Tierney, MPH, Senior Scientist, Clinical Policy, American College of Physicians

— Jennifer Van Meter, PharmD, Director, Healthcare Association Engagement & Innovation, Novartis

— Ronald Walters, MD, MBA, MHA, MS, Associate Vice President of Med Ops/Informatics, University of Texas-MD Anderson Cancer Center

— Mike Woodruff, MD, Chief Patient Experience Officer, Intermountain Healthcare

For more information, visit tinyurl.com/2ekfmeth or qualityforum.org.