The RAND Corporation and Health Dialog Services Corporation today announced an alliance that will entitle Health Dialog to exclusive, worldwide rights to integrate select RAND quality measures into its existing provider performance measurement tools and care management services.
The alliance, the first of its kind, unites the capabilities and expertise of two industry pioneers in health care analytics to pave the way for a new provider performance measurement system that will provide best-in-class capabilities for measuring quality and efficiency in the U.S. healthcare market.
Under the agreement, Health Dialog will license a vast repository of quality measures and the associated scoring and attribution methodologies developed by RAND, which conducted the largest and most comprehensive examination ever made of the quality of American health care. Health Dialog will integrate the RAND QAScoresTM into its care management services and provider performance measurement system.
“This alliance brings together two organizations that are leading efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare in the United States and abroad,” said George Bennett, Chairman and CEO of Health Dialog. “The integration of our respective knowledge, research and experience will enhance our best-in-class healthcare-related measurement tools and further strengthen our ability to continue to bring innovative and differentiated care management products to our clients. We looked long and hard to find the best strategic collaborator for this endeavor and our conclusion was – there’s only one RAND.”
“This is an important step in taking the advances we’ve made through decades of research and applying that knowledge to day-to-day health care evaluation and improvement,” said Elizabeth McGlynn, Ph.D., associate director of RAND Health and corporate chair in health care quality at RAND. “We are very pleased to be working with Health Dialog.”
According to Health Dialog’s Chief Science & Products Officer, David E. Wennberg, M.D., MPH, “Our mission is to address unwarranted variation in medical care by applying our proprietary unwarranted variation analytics and interpreting our findings to produce actionable insights. The RAND measures and research will enhance our products and keep them at industry-leading levels into the future. With them we can more effectively assess the quality and efficiency of care offered through providers and payers and ultimately, to consumers and their families.”
The RAND QAScoresTM were derived from RAND’s landmark study of the quality of health care in the United States published in late 2003 by Dr. McGlynn and several of her RAND colleagues. The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that adults in the United States receive only about half of the recommended, evidenced-based care for the leading causes of illness, disability and death.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND Health, a division of RAND, is the nation’s largest independent health policy research program, with a broad research portfolio that focuses on health care quality, costs and delivery, among other topics. More information is at www.rand.org
Health Dialog is a leading provider of care management services, including disease management, and is one of the fastest growing privately held firms in the U.S. The firm helps physician groups, health plans, and self-insured employers improve healthcare quality while reducing overall costs. The firm’s services include analytic services and telephonic, online, and other care management support for individuals, payors and physicians. Health Dialog helps individuals become more actively engaged in the management of their health and healthcare and have more effective relationships with their physicians. For more information about Health Dialog, go to www.healthdialog.com.