News
Discern-Coached Multiple Sclerosis Center Receives NCQA Level 3 Patient-Centered Specialty Practice Recognition
June 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Carlo Tornatore and the entire staff at the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Department of Neurology’s Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Center for achieving recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as a Level 3 Patient-Centered Specialty Practice (PCSP). This work is part of a first-of-its-kind clinical study, MS-Advance, sponsored by a…
Discern Authors Health Affairs Blog Post On Innovation In Health Benefits For Serious Illness
June 2018
Discern Health recently authored a Health Affairs blog post that recommends policy changes to spur increased innovation in health benefits and improved access to care for the serious-illness population. The piece was written by Discern Director Russ Montgomery, Partner Tom Valuck, and Senior Advisor Andrew Webber. The seriously ill, which are people with multiple chronic…
Tom Valuck Introduces Quality Measures
June 2018
Click here to view the VIDEO.
Discern Director Theresa Schmidt Presents To The Hospice Community
May 2018
Last month, Theresa Schmidt presented two webinars on topics for the hospice community. The April 11 session on “Hospice Data: How to make it work for, not against, your hospice” was delivered through the Hospice Compliance Network webinar series. This session discussed techniques for using data in performance improvement efforts; exploring problematic patterns to help…
Discern Staff Present A Case Study At The PQA Conference
May 2018
Discern VP Sarah Sampsel and Project Manager David Sloan presented at the PQA (Pharmacy Quality Alliance) Conference poster session in Baltimore on May 18. Their poster, “Improving Measure Maintenance Processes: Lessons from the Entresto© Case Study,” outlined the relationship between quality measure stewards and implementation. Using the heart failure medication Entresto© as a case study, the…
Discern Collaborates With ViiV Healthcare To Produce An HIV Quality Fact Sheet
May 2018
Recent scientific advances in understanding the impact of HIV treatment have demonstrated that achieving and maintaining viral suppression improves the health of those living with HIV and prevents the transmission of new infections. Further, data modeling shows that achieving viral suppression among people living with HIV is the single most effective strategy for reducing new…
Discern Focuses On Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement
May 2018
Recent Discern projects have focused on patient-reported outcome performance measures (PRO-PMs) and opportunities for their prioritization, development, endorsement, and implementation for various therapeutic areas. PRO-PMs are an important element of measuring progress toward a patient-centered, value-based health care system. A recent example of Discern’s PRO-PM work is supporting the development of a patient-reported measure for…
Discern Team Members Author Two Publications In The Journal Of Palliative Medicine
April 2018
Discern Partner Tom Valuck and Director Russ Montgomery authored two articles in a recent supplemental issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. In their article “Data Needs for a Serious Illness Care Accountability System: A Framework and Recommendations,” they highlight the additional data that are needed to implement more robust measurement systems, value-based payment models,…
Discern Health Staff Present At National Comprehensive Cancer Network
April 2018
Discern successfully submitted an abstract titled “Measuring the Quality of Personalized Medicine: A Review of the Current Approach and Vision for the Future” to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) as part of our work with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) on quality measurement for personalized medicine. In March, Discern Director Russ…
Discern Health Approved As Health Policy Contractor By The State Of Maryland
April 2018
The Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) has approved Discern as a vendor for its new Multi-Functional, Multi-Award Technical Assistance Program. This action will allow Discern to bid on projects that will advance Maryland’s efforts to transform health care delivery. The HSCRC approved Discern as a vendor for two key functional areas. The first is…