Medical Decision Making: Innovation in the Era of Health Care Reform

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) is a professional research organization that promotes scientific and methodological rigor in health care decision and behavioral science and their application to clinical care and health policy. The formal mission statement of SMDM is "to improve health outcomes through the advancement of proactive systematic approaches to clinical decision-making and policy formation in health care by providing a scholarly forum that connects and educates researchers, providers, policy makers, and the public". In this proposal, SMDM is applying for a 3-year conference grant to enhance the focus, innovation, dissemination, and impact of the SMDM Annual Meetings in 2014-2016. In particular, the conference support will highlight research and policy issues pertaining to AHRQ priority populations in the context of dramatic health care reform that is anticipated in the coming decade. The themes for the 2014, 2105, and 2016 meetings will emphasize research in the decision sciences and applications relevant to AHRQ priority populations including women, minorities, lower income populations, those residing in urban areas, the elderly, and those requiring end of life care. Each meeting will address leading issues in medical decision-making and health policy research that are relevant, challenging, and require a trans-disciplinary and rigorous approach. A continued collaboration and partnership between AHRQ and SMDM over this period of years will advance a shared agenda to improve the quality of health decisions and health outcomes across populations diverse in age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and socio-economic backgrounds. The specific aims of this conference grant are to 1) advance research methods in the trans-disciplinary field of medical decision making relevant to diverse populations in the era of health care reform, 2) provide a forum for state of the art research training, mentorship, and career development, in the field of medical decision making that promotes career development for trainees including women and minorities, and 3) utilize technology, social media, innovative networking approaches to maximize attendance, participation, dissemination, and impact of the meeting in a rapidly changing health care environment. The AHRQ conference grant will provide support to achieve these aims and broaden the impact of the SMDM 2014, 2015, and 2016 meetings. Themes for the upcoming meetings will focus on medical decision making among diverse populations (2014), transparency, communication, and implementation of health care reform (2015), and health care system redesign (2016). SMDM values their relationship with AHRQ which is viewed as a partner and stakeholder in advancing the objectives of the SMDM mission relevant to research, career development, and implementation of health policy. The body of work and products to emerge will be broadly disseminated and contribute to clinical practice, health policy, and decision science this era of health care reform.