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In July 2004, the Fund and the London-based Nuffield Trust cosponsored "Improving Quality of Health Care in the United States and United Kingdom: Strategies for Change and Action, 2004," the sixth in a series of meetings for senior U.S. and U.K. policymakers and quality experts. The gathering was further enriched by representatives from Australia and New Zealand. Held in New York City, the meeting addressed four topics: the use of contractual agreements and incentives to improve quality and efficiency, patient engagement and decision making, implementation of electronic medical records, and the role of professionalism in quality improvement.
The impressive results obtained by U.S., U.K., and Australian quality improvement collaboratives targeting diabetes, cancer, and depression provided a starting point for a dynamic and provocative cross-national exchange on the sustainability and spread of quality improvement efforts. During the conference, Carolyn Clancy, M.D., director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Sir Liam Donaldson, M.D., chief medical officer of the U.K. Department of Health, reported on the progress of the 2001 bilateral agreement between the U.S. and U.K. for collaboration on quality improvement and proposed an agenda for future efforts.
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