The Deans of Johns Hopkins and Miami Discuss Accountable Care Organizations

March 2, 2011

Edward D. Miller, M.D., Dean/CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine and Dean Pascal Goldschmidt senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and CEO of the University of Miami Health System of Miami discuss accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the new era of healthcare reform and how their respective institutions have already made significant strides in developing ACOs with the goals of developing more cost-effective, efficient and quality health care while improving coordination of care for patients along the entire continuum of care.

In Part 1, Dean Miller outlines the framework and characteristics of ACOs and Dean Goldschmidt reviews the critical role centralized electronic medical record systems play in ACOs.

In Part 2, Dean Miller discusses the New England Journal of Medicine paper he co-authored with Hopkins faculty member Scott Berkowitz, M.D., that describes several programs at Hopkins that demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of ACOs, and notes how ACOs differ from Health Maintenance Organizations that were popular during the 1990′s. Dean Goldschmidt emphasizes the importance of measuring and rewarding clinical excellence.