The Tufts partnership for managed care education

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Abstract
The authors describe the formation and the academic activities of the Tufts Managed Care Institute, a collaborative venture of Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Health Plan, an independent-practice-association (IPA)-model health maintenance organization (HMO). In 1994, the dean of the medical school and the CEO of the HMO recognized the need for collaboration to prepare students and practitioners for high-quality, cost-effective practice in a managed care environment. They established an advisory committee to oversee a six-month feasibility study to interview experts and opinion leaders and identify critical characteristics of the ideally prepared managed care practitioner. In 1995, with start-up funding from the HMO, the institute began its operations as a freestanding enterprise with board representation from the two sponsoring institutions. While many of the institute's programs have been developed for practicing physicians and other health care professionals, this article focuses on the academic activities. For medical students, the approach has been to blend managed care principles and practices into existing courses, problem-based learning cases, and clerkships, rather than creating separate managed care courses. For primary care residents, the institute has a grant to develop managed care curricula in conjunction with Tufts-affiliated residency training programs. Faculty development is accomplished through dedicated workshops and seminars, and through increased dialogue between traditional faculty and managed care professionals. In all of its programs and activities the institute has fostered greater contact and collaboration between colleagues from both sides of the health plan-academia “divide.” Operationally, the institute structure, with dedicated full-time administrative staff, provides the singular focus necessary to establish managed care education as a top priority for the partnership. At the same time, sustaining this freestanding organization and infrastructure requires increased resources. Initial responses to the institute's programs and activities have been positive, both from the local Tufts community and from external parties. Yet the partnership must establish methods to evaluate the institute's long-term impact in its efforts to help practitioners succeed in a transforming landscape.

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