The Health Care Creative Studies Initiative will enable participants to learn from as well as contribute to the growing body of knowledge of applications of complex systems in health care.
The Initiative provides the following opportunities to its membership:
To participate in semiannual two-day seminars on the application of complex systems to meeting public health and health care needs and staying financially viable and within budget. Each member organization may send two participants. Members are invited to join faculty in delivering presentations, leading discussions and developing case studies.
To receive quarterly articles analyzing key topics in public health and healthcare.
To participate in small group projects on areas of specific need and interest.
To share their experiences in applying this approach to specific public health and healthcare problems.
To develop proposals for changes in public health and health care policy and public health and health care management using complex systems concepts and methods.
To design structures for the delivery of public health and health care services that will allow for rapid adaptation to diverse conditions.
To have access to accumulating literature on specific applications of complex systems in public health and health care policy and delivery of public health and clinical services to patients and communities.
To contribute to the growing literature on complex systems in healthcare and public health.
Each day brings more news of serious cracks in both the public health and health care systems: rapid changes in medical practice, severe nursing shortages, medical errors, prohibitive malpractice costs, administrative turnover, lack of access for those in rural areas, decline in public trust, ongoing threats of epidemics of known and new diseases, responses to and preparations for bioterrorism, vaccine shortages and threats of decreased vaccine coverage rates, the aging of the population with its associated increased risks of disease and disability, drops in reimbursement rates, higher costs of employer-paid insurance, unfavorable changes in Medicare and Medicaid, loss of health care coverage for retirees and for those losing their jobs, and challenges of medical education. Up to now interventions have only served to add to the complexity and cost and provided no improvement to those struggling to receive care and those struggling to provide it.
The New England Complex Systems Institute has developed an innovative approach to address the needs of providing public health and health care services in the current environment and to adapt quickly to provide care in the unknowable conditions that lie ahead. This approach is based on sound research in complex adaptive systems and draws from the knowledge of internationally known scientists in many fields.
Participation in the initiative is by organizational membership for an annual fee of $20,000. Additional participants from member organizations may attend seminars for $1000 per person.
The New England Complex Systems Institute is a nonprofit research and educational institution. All proceeds will be used for the further development of research and educational programs in complex systems and healthcare and public health.