IBH-PC Annual Meeting – August 25th-26th 2016 --- Burlington, VT

IBH-PC/PCORI Annual Meeting
August 25th-26th 2016

On Thursday August 25^th and Friday August 26^th the IBH-PC team convened the first Annual Meeting in Burlington, Vermont at the Hilton Garden Inn. The meeting brought together members of the Executive Team, Co-Investigators, Consultants, Cluster Site Leaders, Patient Partners, and staff from PCORI (our funders).

This was a chance for those involved with the project to meet face to face and exchange ideas, concerns, and tips as we enter the beginning stages of onboarding the clinical sites. The meeting was also an opportunity to bring the participants to the Green Mountain State to see a glorious New England summer and take inspiration from the natural beauty of Vermont.

After opening remarks from Rodger Kessler, we heard progress reports from Ben Littenberg, Connie van Eeghen, Rodger Kessler, and Elias Brandt. There were many questions, comments and suggestions that will shape the project going forward. After the presentations and a delicious lunch, the hard work began as the large group broke into teams to discuss the following issues:

• -          Site Management
• -          Practice Change
• -          Patient Engagement

With a diverse mix of all the represented participants, the groups took the rest of the day to both pose, and answer the questions in each section on what is still needed to help the transition from onboarding to research run as smoothly as possible. 

• The Site Management team worked on how best to recruit and on-board eligible clinical practices, including a number of thorny issues around sub-contracting. 
• The Practice Change team reviewed and revised the Practice Redesign Toolkit, one of the three key elements of the intervention. 
• The Patient Engagement team developed an enhanced a theoretical model of patient engagement and looked for ways to apply it at the clinical level to support patients in the Redesign Teams.

Day 2 opened with a continuation of the small group work. The Site Management team practiced dealing with clinical site leadership with role playing exercises about potential site issues and how a Cluster Site Leader could address them. The Patient Engagement group focused on making the patients involved less “subjects” and more “advisors and partners” in their care. The Practice Change group tackled redesign issues with implementing the Toolkit in diverse settings.

Then the small groups reported back on their findings to the larger group for input and comment. The general consensus was that though there were still issues needing resolution, the project was on the right track. The PCORI Representatives mentioned how excited they were to see where the project was leading and could not wait for onboarding to begin. Then, just like the local children seen outside the venue’s windows, the participants scampered out into the sun to enjoy one of the last sunny days of summer. A productive meeting that left all involved energized and inspired to kick this project into drive!

CLICK HERE to see photos from the Annual Meeting

More detailed minutes of the meeting and videos of some of the presentations and discussion will be available soon – stay tuned!