government
Former AMA president to advise CMS innovations center
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted May 9, 2011
Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD, past president of the American Medical Association, has been named to serve a one-year appointment as an adviser to a new federal health innovations office.
Dr. Nielsen will be senior adviser for stakeholder engagement at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, an office created at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services by the health system reform law. The internist, who served as AMA president from June 2008 to June 2009, said the office is about identifying best practices for improving the programs.
"The goals of the center have been termed a 'triple aim' of better health for communities, better care when people need care and lowering of costs," Dr. Nielsen said in a statement. "And we think there's plenty of ways to do that. It's not a matter of withholding health care benefits; it's a matter of giving doctors tools and empowering them to deliver care in a way that they know is better for their patients and actually gives them more joy in their work."
When Dr. Nielsen's one-year appointment at the CMMI is up, she will return to the University at Buffalo's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in New York to serve as senior associate dean for health policy, the university said in a statement.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/05/09/gvbf0509.htm.
