Health Innovation Summit: Day 2 Highlights

November 1, 2024 · NCQA Communications

The Health Innovation Summit is well into its second day in Nashville, Tennessee, with experts on care delivery, health equity and the digital quality transition taking center stage. Check out our video from Day 2. Here are some highlights from the sessions. 

Transforming Asthma Care 

We kicked off the morning talking quality asthma care with NCQA’s Caroline Blaum and Njira Lugogo, Professor of Internal Medicine at University of Michigan Health; Tonya Winders, CEO of Global Allergy & Airways Patient Platform; and Wendy Wright, family nurse practitioner and owner of Wright & Associates Family Healthcare.  

Here’s what they said about the barriers and challenges that impact people with asthma and the clinicians who treat them: 

• There’s a fundamental disconnect about how asthma is defined—as an acute condition, not a chronic one—and that affects treatment approaches and patient self-management.  

• Asthma patients tend to minimize their sickness. They get used to breathing with respiratory constriction and don’t want to take medicine when they aren’t symptomatic. 

• There are no clear guidelines for testing, there’s limited access to diagnostic tools (spirometry) and testing is not built into the primary care office workflow. 

• Historically, asthma treatment has focused on symptom management, not preservation of organ function—we need to acknowledge that steroid overuse can cause permanent lung damage.  

• Better performance measures can drive appropriate reimbursement—and financial incentives can make the disease more relevant. 

• NCQA’s new measures of steroid overuse and follow-up after acute exacerbation are a positive development and a step in the right direction.  

The bottom line? Breathlessness is not normal. Asthma patients shouldn’t have to suffer.  

NCQA will release a new white paper this month: Good Outcomes for People With Asthma: Challenges and Call to Action. 

Equity Across the Care Continuum 

We also heard from a powerhouse panel of health equity leaders who are dismantling barriers, revolutionizing access and cultivating culturally responsive care: Tosan Boyo, President, East Bay Market at Sutter Health; Camille Burnett, Vice President, Health Equity at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Daniel Dawes, SVP, Global Health and Founding Dean, School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College; LaShawn McIver, SVP and Chief Health Equity Office at AHIP; and Bryan Buckley, Head of Public Health at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.  

Key takeaways from the panel: 

• We need to move health equity from activity to productivity. It’s time for delivery systems to be held accountable for closing gaps in care. We must accept that the work to make health care equitable is never going to end; there will always be more to do. 

• Health equity leaders need resources. Organizations expect a lot from individuals who oversee this work, but those expectations don’t align with the amount of effort it takes to do the work. Many people are a “department of one,” or are siloed from other departments.  

• Health equity is an organization-wide effort. Health equity officers shouldn’t be the only people talking about equity—it’s everyone’s job. Every operational metric should have a health equity lens, and organizations should develop performance measures that are tied to incentives. 

• We’re all on the same continuum toward achieving equity. We’re finally starting to deal with the systemic barriers that have prevented us from moving the needle. We need to keep up the momentum. 

• Community engagement is more than writing checks to foundations. It’s about building an authentic connection with the people in the communities we serve. If you ask people what they need, they will tell you! We just need to listen.  

For more on health equity, listen to our recent podcast, Hospital President: Health Equity Verifies Quality, featuring Tosan Boyo. 

Driving the National Quality Agenda Forward 

Michelle Schreiber, Group Director, Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives at CMS, joined Peggy O’Kane, NCQA President, to discuss how the National Quality Strategy is a transformative roadmap for harnessing the collective energy, resources and insights of the quality community.  

Schreiber spent most of her career in the intersection of EHRs and quality, and is an ardent supporter of the digital transformation in health care. Here’s what she shared with the standing-room-only crowd: 

• Digital information is the currency of health care—the COVID pandemic made this obvious.  

• There are endless possibilities for transforming health care around digital information. Data will be democratized so patients can control their care.  

• Every patient is looking for better care and every practitioner is committed to quality and safety—but that commitment isn’t always reflected in health care facilities. 

• Technology isn’t the primary barrier to going digital; the issue is getting everyone to work together to make the change. We need to break that change into increments and keep moving forward. 

PENCIL Pouch: Community Giving Project 

PENCIL is a non-profit education organization delivering tangible resources to Metro Nashville Public Schools. With many students coming from economically disadvantaged households, PENCIL works in partnership with businesses, community groups and other organizations to provide critically needed resources—including school supplies—so every student and teacher has the basic tools they need. 

NCQA donated high-need school supplies to PENCIL; summit attendees helped assemble them in pencil pouches for students. 

We’ll share more insights from the summit on the NCQA blog; stay tuned!