The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) today announced it will host the 2022 Health Innovation Summit in Washington, DC from October 31 - November 3, 2022. At a time when health care organizations across the country are working to provide better and more equitable patient care, NCQA is convening more than 1,000 health care leaders, industry innovators, and policy makers for four days of thought-provoking keynotes, panel discussions, and peer learning to improve health care. 

"We want to connect the best and brightest to discuss how the health care industry is redefining quality and using innovative approaches to advance health care quality and equity," said NCQA President Margaret E. O'Kane. "NCQA is bringing together stakeholders from across the industry - health plans, care delivery organizations, health IT solutions providers, consultants, and government - to learn from each other and tackle some of today's greatest challenges. Together, we can develop solutions to evolve health care quality, make care more equitable, and forge strategies that enable success in value-based care."

The NCQA Health Innovation Summit aims to inspire quality-minded stakeholders and accelerate quality improvement. It will feature talks led by more than 140 dynamic speakers, one-of-a-kind education sessions, and a pavilion of exhibitors showcasing the latest innovations in digital health care. This intersection of payers, providers, and policy makers will engage health care professionals looking to explore data solutions and next-generation technologies that can improve health care quality.

The 2022 Summit will feature six agenda themes impacting and influencing health care quality:

• Innovative Care Delivery - Examining how new modalities, devices, apps, and care settings are reshaping care delivery.
• Equitable Health Care - Strategies for prioritizing and incorporating equity into plan operations and creating an infrastructure to narrow disparities and improve outcomes.
• Data & Digital - Sharing how leading organizations are collecting intelligence, visualizing insights, using AI automation, protecting privacy, and more.
• Breakthrough Innovation - Lessons learned from people and firms whose vision and ideas are reimagining health care.
• Resiliency & Recovery - Exploring topics such as clinician burnout, mental health, patient behavioral health, and more that can help inspire health care professionals to reinvent health care delivery.
• NCQA Programs and Research - Spotlighting the latest on NCQA products, programs, measures, and research to improve health care quality.

Event sponsors include AstraZeneca, The Helmsley Charitable Trust, Inovalon, Merck, and Stellar Health.

The 2022 Health Innovation Summit will take place in person at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC. Please visit www.ncqasummit.com for additional information about the event and to register to attend.

About NCQA

NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA Accredits and Certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also Recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS^®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA's website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make informed health care choices. NCQA can also be found at Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/ and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.

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Media Contact
Theresa Masnik
SHIFT Communications
[email protected] 

San Diego-area patients healing from alcohol and drug addiction who also need mental health care can find it at Park Mental Health Treatment of San Diego on El Cajon Boulevard. 

The new facility is the sister of Encinitas-based Shoreline Recovery Center, a dual-diagnosis alcohol and drug rehab facility with flexible, personalized treatment plans that combine evidence-based therapies, clinical best practices and opportunities to expand job skills and training.

"On a fundamental level, what we're trying to do is get these guys sober and help them find a life of purpose," said Shoreline Recovery Center's Executive Director Kate Judd. "In order to create long-term sobriety, they need to have a reason for why they want to be sober long term." 

Established five years ago as a stand-alone sober living center in North County, Shoreline Recovery Center is a successful, community program where accountability thrives. The results are due to the curriculum, which is structured to provide clients with programs and services that create high levels of success with a focus on interest, purpose and assessments.

"A lot of what we do and provide goes above and beyond as far as development of purpose to reorient clients into a meaningful life without drugs and alcohol," said Judd. 

The No. 1 priority of Shoreline Recovery Center is healing the family system from addiction. This includes teaching parents what is acceptable and not when it comes to involvement in their adult kid's life.

Through integrated workshops, the center's professionals help families differentiate between helping and enabling during support sessions. "This is a huge focus of our work," Judd said. "The line between helping and enabling can easily become blurred."

Following the brunt of COVID-19, a noticeable need developed for additional programming that centered on mental health to better serve client needs and Park Mental Health Treatment of San Diego was born. The facility supports the same culture, accountability, integrity and development in purpose that Shoreline was built on.

Park Mental Health provides expert care for clients who need mental health and substance abuse counseling by providing comprehensive, individualized treatment plans that encourage clients to return to or create productive, happy and healthy lives. 

The center provides compassionate, evidence-based, primary mental health treatment for clients with mood (anxiety, depression, bi-polar), thought (schizophrenia, schizoaffective), and co-occurring disorders. It's comprehensive programming includes a multi-disciplinary team with psychiatrists, therapists and counselors, has a focus on equity and cultural competency and is LGBTQIA2+ affirming. For more information, call (866) 828-1220.

Emery Pharma Logo
Emery Pharma Logo

Emery Pharma has officially expanded its state-of-the-art laboratories which feature a brand-new High-resolution Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer, enabling Emery Pharma to expand its service offerings. The extension of its new laboratory is streamlined to support the research and development of large molecule drugs including, biologics, antibody-drug conjugates, biosimilars and more. 

Emery Pharma's expertise continues to grow with the addition of Dr. Rodney Bannwart. Dr. Bannwart has considerable experience in pharmaceutical analysis, holding advanced scientific positions at Pfizer, Abbott, Novartis, and Alcon. "Rodney is a pharmaceutical veteran and previously jumpstarted Alcon's Biologics Mass Spectrometry capabilities with great success. We are excited for him to lead the new Large Molecule Analytical Division at Emery Pharma," said Dr. Neel Bose, CSO.

In addition to the High-resolution Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer, the newly established laboratory features brand-new instruments for Ultrahigh Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) equipped with a Diode Array Detector (DAD), Charged Aerosol Detector (CAD), and Refractive Index (RI) detector, Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and Semi-Preparative High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). With the addition of these new top-of-the-line instruments, Emery Pharma continues to offer quality, flexibility, and innovative concepts to help accelerate the drug development process.

About Emery Pharma

Emery Pharma is a full-service contract research laboratory, specializing in supporting preclinical drug development, including analytical, bioanalytical solutions, microbiology & cell biology services, drug and impurity characterization, and general R&D and cGMP/GLP support.

Emery Pharma's primary focus is finding solutions for our Clients' toughest R&D challenges and tailoring solutions to fit each Client's unique needs. The experienced scientific team will manage the process: from drug discovery, proof-of-concept, data management, data analysis, to gathering insights. The team excels at solving scientific challenges and addressing any issues early in the process, so Clients don't experience unnecessary setbacks. 

Emery Pharma is equipped to support the development of small molecule drugs, biologics, biosimilars, gene therapies, botanical drugs, and more. Learn more about Emery Pharma by visiting www.emerypharma.com or [email protected]. 

Fusion Marketplace

Two additional medical staffing agencies have joined Fusion Marketplace, a healthcare staffing job platform that gives traveling healthcare professionals the power to take their careers into their own hands. 

Next Move, Inc. and Coast Medical Service have joined the platform, which aims to make the lives of healthcare travelers simple and efficient. Fusion Marketplace is bringing transparency to their careers in a time where stability hasn't been guaranteed for the last few years. 

"The addition of these two agencies is so beneficial for our healthcare travelers," said Fusion CEO Steve Koesters. "They're bringing more job opportunities across multiple specialties in facilities all across the country, ultimately putting the traveler in the driver's seat."

There was a high demand for quality healthcare professionals as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the nation's healthcare system. The healthcare staffing industry is normalizing now, meaning agencies, facilities, and healthcare professionals are finally starting to catch their breath. 

However, there is still a demand for healthcare travelers and Fusion Marketplace is making it easier for healthcare travelers and facilities to connect in a quick and transparent way. The additional partnership of Coast Medical Services and Next Move, Inc. is adding more options to the healthcare travelers using it to take control of their careers. 

To learn more about Fusion Marketplace and to create your traveler profile, go to fusionmarketplace.com or download the Fusion Marketplace app, available now in the App Store and Google Play Store. 

About Fusion Marketplace:

Fusion Marketplace is a staffing recruitment platform where healthcare travelers are in control. Healthcare travelers now have more career, agency, recruiter, and lifestyle choices in one convenient location. Unknowns known. Learn more at fusionmarketplace.com

WestsideMed
WestsideMed Logo

Out of the many primary care medical services WestsideMed provides patients in the Atlanta area, its focus on primary care is especially helpful. It's key to ensuring a patient remains healthy in the long term. Thanks to a new partnership with digital media agency Sprinkles Media, WestsideMed is pushing the importance of chronic condition management via its site.

Learning About Chronic Condition Management

While specializing in urgent care in Atlanta, WestsideMed ensures that patients that require further, long-term care will receive the help they need. Specifically through chronic condition management.

Chronic conditions, or medical conditions that persist for three months or longer, can take a heavy toll on a patient. WestsideMed dedicates itself to educating patients, both old and new, about its chronic condition management services.

"Chronic condition management is a form of primary care that aims to improve a patient's life through regular screenings and exams. Additionally, medical professionals educate patients about various health conditions to help in effective management," nurse practitioner Ariel Esteves explains.

For the urgent care and primary care provider in Atlanta, chronic care also involves compassionate, forward-facing service that ensures that patients are receiving the best care possible. 

More importantly, however, is the urgent care provider's dedication to mapping out a road to in-depth treatment and possible recovery.

"Effectively treating chronic diseases is one of the most important foundations of healthcare. At WestsideMed, this program crafts individual health care services for patients to help address and even prevent health conditions."

What Are Chronic Conditions?

What conditions fall under the umbrella of chronic condition management? While any illness or medical ailment which lasts more than three months applies, the most common chronic conditions patients struggle with are cancer, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, thyroid issues, and arthritis.

"Chronic condition management isn't just addressing a health issue and providing medication or advice. It involves developing an in-depth, personalized healthcare plan that best helps individual patients."

With chronic conditions, no one treatment is a cure-all for every patient. As such, medical professionals at WestsideMed take every variable into account when assisting patients.

Programs develop through patients providing their medical background to primary care doctors in Atlanta. The environment, family medical history, and disease severity all help doctors develop a comprehensive plan.

This aspect of primary care aims to help treat symptoms and limit the severity of progressive diseases like cystic fibrosis and cancer.

With WestsideMed, patients dealing with pressing, unexpected medical issues can walk in and expect an effortless urgent care experience in Atlanta.

More About WestsideMed

WestsideMed is a primary care and urgent care provider in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Doctors and medical professionals aim to help patients all over the Atlanta area by offering a safe environment for everyone. 

For more information about the services WestsideMed provides, visit the website at https://www.westsidemedatl.com/

A recently published article in Experimental Biology and Medicine (Volume 247, Issue 14, July, 2022) identifies a potential cause of disproportionate COVID-19 disease severity in certain racial/ethnic groups. The study, led by Dr. Douglas Jay Perkins, Director of the University of New Mexico Center for Global Health (New Mexico, USA), reports that hospitalized patients who self-reported as American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) had higher SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in peripheral blood and more severe COVID-19.  

From the start of the pandemic onward, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected certain racial/ethnic groups, including American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations who have experienced high rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality. Several studies have found that detection of SARS-CoV-2 in peripheral blood is associated with the development of severe COVID-19 and mortality. However, data are largely unreported for SARS-CoV-2 viral load dynamics and COVID-19 severity in some groups of patients. 

In this study, Perkins and colleagues examined viral load dynamics and disease severity in a diverse cohort of hospitalized patients at the University of New Mexico Hospital. The group found that the strongest predictor of severe COVID-19 in the study population was the average viral load in peripheral blood. The AI/AN patients had comparable comorbidities to the other groups, yet more severe COVID-19, twice the length of hospital stay, and higher viral loads in peripheral blood during hospitalization. Self-reported race/ethnicity as AI/AN was the strongest predictor of elevated viral loads in peripheral blood. These findings show that detection of SARS-CoV-2 in peripheral blood is associated with severe COVID-19. The group is currently exploring novel treatment interventions that target SARS-CoV-2 in peripheral blood as a strategy for improving patient outcomes, especially in vulnerable populations. 

Dr. Perkins said: "We are grateful to present findings that address the disproportionate COVID-19 disease burden in our American Indian brothers and sisters. It is our great hope that such findings can provide a scientific foundation to foster the development of improved prevention and treatment strategies for those most affected by COVID-19."

Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine, said, "Dr. Perkins and colleagues have presented clear evidence that the strongest predictor of severe COVID-19 in their patient cohort was SARS-CoV-2 viral load in peripheral blood. Further, they demonstrated that those who self-reported as American Indian and or Alaska Native had more severe COVID-19 and higher peripheral blood viral load. This provides a strong case for more frequent detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the peripheral blood being an important factor for more severe COVID-19 observed in epidemiological studies on American Indian and Alaska Native populations."

Experimental Biology and Medicine is a global journal dedicated to the publication of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in the biomedical sciences. The journal was first established in 1903. Experimental Biology and Medicine is the journal of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine. To learn about the benefits of society membership visit www.sebm.org. If you are interested in publishing in the journal, please visit http://ebm.sagepub.com/.

For more information, please contact [email protected].