On Friday, CHC Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Nwando Olayiwola attended a small gathering of thought leaders in the New England region to discuss innovations in health care delivery with Dr. Donald Berwick, Administrator for the Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services (CMS).  Dr. Olayiwola and others discussed Dr. Berwick’s three broad strategic goals, better health for populations, better care for individuals, and lower cost through improvement.

Dr. Olayiwola shared information about CHC’s efforts in telemedicine as an innovation to increase access and quality.  She spoke about our recent publication of a one year long study on diabetic retinopathy screening through telemedicine.

She also highlighted the importance of our nurse practitioner residency program and its contribution to primary care workforce growth, as well as the leadership of Weitzman Center for Innovation in research and development and suggested that CMS should look at CHC as a “solutions center” where innovations could be piloted and tested.

The conversation covered a number of complex and novel ideas on further advancing health care delivery and Dr. Berwick voiced strong appreciation for the compelling dialogue with all the attendees.