New book explores economic, demographic and cultural aspects that threaten healthcare and AMCs

As health care reform approaches many questions remain unanswered

Arthur Feldman, M.D., Ph.D, Magee Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, has written a new book, Pursuing Excellence In Healthcare: Preserving America's Academic Medical Centers, one of the first textbooks since the works of Abraham Flexnor in 1910 to take a comprehensive look at the issues facing academic medicine. Dr. Feldman reviews the economic, demographic and cultural aspects which threaten healthcare in general and academic medical centers (AMCs) in particular, but also provides a framework for change that can enhance the ability of AMCs to survive. This framework is based on careful evaluation of the most successful AMCs but also on lessons that can be learned from business and industry. The book has received praise and endorsements from leading experts in the field of academic medicine and nationally prominent health educators including members of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

"If academic medical centers are to fulfill their responsibilities to society then they will need to restructure because the current model is simply flawed," said Feldman.

"As with anything of this magnitude these changes are not going to be easy, but to continually ignore them puts the future of medical education, research and patient care at risk."

Pursuing Excellence in Healthcare offers a systematic plan towards reform including:

• A look at the four interconnected spheres of action that support the core goal of the AMC - excellence in patient care (more)
• The challenges within each sphere - structure, education, research and business - and how attention to each sphere is necessary but not sufficient to preserve the integrity and excellence of AMCs
• Unique structures at selected AMCs that have allowed them to succeed despite challenging times including re-organization and globalization

"I hope that this book can serve as a platform for discussions amongst physicians, students, policymakers, analysts, regulators and those in the financial sector as it will take a collaborative effort of the many stakeholders in academic medicine to ensure survival," said Feldman. "Hopefully the new perspective and new philosophy offered in the book will spur all the agents involved towards reform and continue making our AMCs to be the focal point for the future of American medicine."

Source: Thomas Jefferson University