The 2006 survey findings, which were published as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive, also show that in all countries except Germany, a high proportion of primary care doctors said they are not well prepared to care for patients with multiple chronic conditions.⁽¹⁾ The use of clinician teams and systems known to improve outcomes for such patients varied widely across the countries, with particularly low usage found in the U.S, Canada, and Australia. Overall, the survey results suggest that system-wide approaches are a necessary foundation to well-coordinated, safe, and high-quality care.

A policy roundtable discussion among the health ministers at the symposium provided the opportunity for an exchange of views on what defines a high performance health care system and how to strike the right balance between health care quality, efficiency, innovation, and health system sustainability.

Sessions on the last day of the symposium were held on Capitol Hill in cooperation with the Alliance for Health Reform. These sessions for congressional staff and a broad Washington policy audience featured health care delivery and policy innovations in other countries that may translate to the U.S. The sessions showcased the role of national clinical guidelines in the Netherlands and the U.K. and Denmark's approach to developing, financing, and implementing electronic health records.

The OECD project's first report, published in March 2006, included comparative data on 13 quality indicators in the 23 countries.⁽²⁾ The OECD will continue to develop the scope and depth of the indicator set, with the aim of producing 50 internationally comparable quality measures to include in its database.