The Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) Research Institute began 2006 by focusing on new directions and ongoing commitments. We have begun expanding our work in health services research, which examines how health care is delivered, what it costs and how quality can be improved. At the same time, we are taking steps to strengthen long-held ties with PAMF physicians and staff –- the people who can best translate research findings into clinical practice.

Health services research has a long history at the Research Institute. In the 1960s, PAMF researcher Anne Scitovsky conducted the country's first scientific studies on medical expenses, work later applied to the Medicare program. In recent years, Drs. Sandra Wilson and Nancy Brown have been instrumental in pursuing better ways to care for teens and asthma patients, among other groups, and have begun working with PAMF colleagues to provide better self-management opportunities for our patients with chronic disease.

Now, we are well-positioned to expand PAMF's efforts in the health services field. The time is right for doing so, with national interest focused increasingly on health care quality and cost. Across the country, there is growing sentiment that the medical system can do more to prevent errors, improve outcomes and deliver care more efficiently. Leading local providers such as PAMF have a responsibility to discover reforms that work, and to set a national example for quality improvement.

Contents

Introduction

• An Early Start to a Tradition of Achievement


• Discoveries Across the Disease Continuum

Profiles

• The Molecular Frontier of Diabetes Care


• Avoiding an Unnecessary Infection in Infants


• Committed to Chronic Disease Care and Senior Health


• Placing Powerful Information in Patients' Hands


• Improving Surgery to Repair Ailing Hearts


• Seeking New Treatments for the Sickest Patients

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