Partners in Improving Health Care: Learning from Others
March 16, 2018
Partners in Improving Health Care: Learning from Others
Health Affairs’ blog recently published America’s “NICE”? discussing whether the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is becoming our country’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). ICER was founded in 2006 as “an independent and non-partisan research organization that objectively evaluates the clinical and economic value of prescription drugs, medical tests, and other health care and health care delivery innovations” based in Boston, MA. NICE was founded in 1999 in the United Kingdom as “a special health authority, to reduce variation in the availability and quality of National Health Service treatments and care” and in 2013 was “established in primary legislation, becoming a Non Departmental Public Body.” ”I look to both NICE and ICER as we develop our recommendations and value their contribution to the health improvement space.
I believe that as a public/private Collaborative we bridge the strengths of both NICE and ICER through increased flexibility, greater transparency, and clear accountability. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis popularized the phrase “laboratories of democracy” reflecting on the ability of our 50 states to engage in regional experimentation. Our Bree Collaborative is the result of such experimentation, a truly American phenomenon working to improve health care.