December 15, 2017
Looking Back on 2017
Like many of you, we are finding it hard to believe that 2017 is almost over. This has been a busy year for us – we convened five workgroups and brought our number of completed recommendations to twenty! Read our 2017 End-Of-Year Report. – Ongoing Work: Evidence-Based Prescribing of Opioids for Pain Our members adopted…
Read more »November 30, 2017
Your Family, Your Health
As we head into the holiday season, most of us are probably going to be spending a good amount of time with our families and friends. This is a great opportunity to enjoy time with those we love and think about what is important and meaningful to us. But staying healthy during the holidays can…
Read more »November 15, 2017
The Opioid Crisis: Meditations in a Public Health Emergency
WHAT’S IN A NAME? On October 26th, the White House declared the opioid crisis a National Public Health Emergency. This act fulfilled a long-standing campaign promise of the president, with one seemingly small, but significant modification: the declaration of a National Public Health Emergency, not just a National Emergency. While this may sound like a…
Read more »November 1, 2017
A Global Look At Our Health Care System
I was recently lucky enough to spend some time in Europe. We saw ancient aqueducts and sewers (early public health initiatives), some of the oldest buildings in the world, and ate too much cheese. Luckily I didn’t need to interact with the health care system in any of these countries – but I can’t help…
Read more »September 28, 2017
We want your comments on our recommendations!
September was a busy month for the Bree Collaborative. We finalized three of our reports for dissemination for public comment – Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, Opioid Use Disorder Treatment, and our re-review of the Total Knee and Total Hip Replacement Bundle. Now we want to hear from you! Information on submitting comments on all…
Read more »September 1, 2017
Communication Resolution Programs: Reshaping Response to Patient Harm
Despite the best efforts of health care providers and organizations, patients sometimes experience unanticipated and undesirable outcomes in their care. In these cases, open and honest communication with the patient and family is critical to maintaining trust and respect while not compounding patient suffering. In recent years, Communication and Resolution Programs (CRP) have emerged in response to…
Read more »August 18, 2017
Building Health Equity
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, 1966 I believe that everyone deserves their best chance at being healthy. Unfortunately, our country still has a long way to go. How healthy we are and whether we can get the type of health…
Read more »August 1, 2017
Emerging Research on the Impacts of Diet on Dementia
Since January 2017, the Bree Collaborative’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias workgroup has been compiling recommendations to align care delivery for patients, as well as families and caregivers, with best practices using existing evidence-based standard of care for diagnosis, treatment, supportive care, transitions of care, delirium, and advance care planning. One of the most common…
Read more »July 4, 2017
A Summer Reading List
This month I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Keith Wailoo, Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University, when he spoke at the University of Washington Medical Center, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine’s annual lecture. Dr. Wailoo spoke about his book, Pain: A Political History, giving a historical perspective of our nation’s…
Read more »June 15, 2017
Selecting New Topics for 2018
Every year our members select new topics. This is an exciting time for our Collaborative – a chance to look back at our previous work and to think about how we can continue to help improve health care quality, outcomes, and affordability in our community. We will start our conversation on new topics at our…
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