Primary Care Takes Center Stage at IBM Roundtable

Patient-centered primary health care was the topic of the day at an Oct. 23 roundtable hosted by IBM, the AAFP and the American College of Physicians at IBM's Washington, D.C., office. The computer giant organized the meeting to lay the groundwork for future collaborative efforts to support health care in the United States.

The meeting was the second time in recent months that the Academy and IBM have brainstormed together about primary care. The event included representatives from some of the nation's largest employers, such as Walgreen Co., Dow Chemical Co., Boeing Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., Ball Corp., Dell Inc. and FedEx. The American College of Physicians, TRICARE and TransforMED, an AAFP initiative focused on transformative practice redesign, also participated in the meeting.

The meeting was about working with large employers to design a primary care-based product they could buy for their employees, said AAFP Board Chair Larry Fields, M.D., of Flatwoods, Ky.

"This meeting established a home for this project and in so doing, gave an immediacy and a sense of urgency to the matter of a cost-efficient, high-quality health insurance product based on family medicine, the medical home and the principles elucidated in the 2004 Future of Family Medicine report," said Fields.

Paul Grundy, M.D., M.P.H., IBM's director of health care, technology and strategic planning, said it was clear to him that everyone in the room understood that primary care is the model needed to move forward.

"I saw the frustration of about 20 large employers that don't want to continue buying the health care products they are now buying for their employees," said Grundy. "There was a sense of 'OK, now that you've told us about this model, where do we buy it?'"

The day's agenda included discussions on

"I would say that IBM is in this with you (the AAFP) for the long haul," said Grundy. "My greatest fear is that when this country fully awakens to the value of primary care and family medicine, it will be too late."

During the meeting, Fields and Academy EVP Douglas Henley presented key points of a document the AAFP and American College of Physicians developed and adopted in July 2006. The document, "Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home," (PDF file: 2 pages / 28 KB. More about PDFs.) includes verbiage about the need for a personal physician for every patient; a personal physician's responsibility for each patient's health care needs; patient care coordination; health care quality and safety; enhanced patient access through systems such as open scheduling and expanded hours; and physician payment that appropriately recognizes the value provided to patients who have a patient-centered medical home.