Physician as Healthcare System Navigator

1. Quality improvement and patient safety
2. Structures and processes
3. Informatics
4. Population/community health and health equity
5. Value
6. Systems thinking and leadership

Healthcare Quality Improvement (QI) and Patient Safety

Scope: The graduate grasps the role of quality improvement in healthcare, including the ability to see deficiencies in existing processes and initiate change. The graduate comprehends the potential for harm within the provision of healthcare and participates in protocols that protect patients and the steps that follow safety events.

After graduation, the UMass Chan student

• Describes basic QI methodology
• Identifies opportunities for improvement of healthcare-related processes
• Understands role as agent of change and provides informed input whenever possible
• Participates in activities that reduce safety-related risks to patients
• Identifies safety events and the importance of reporting, investigation, countermeasures, and disclosure

Healthcare structures and processes

Scope: The graduate is oriented to structures including healthcare settings and personnel, and processes including financing and transitions of care.

After graduation, the UMass Chan student

• Understands the roles of healthcare settings across the spectrum from home to hospitals, including transitions from one to another
• Describes how healthcare is financed, including government and private payer platforms, the roles of employers and individuals, and models including single payer systems, health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, and accountable care organizations
• Identifies the government’s role in developing, setting, and reforming healthcare policy

Healthcare Informatics

Scope: The graduate recognizes the significance of informatics, including rationale, terminology, benefits, functionality and vulnerabilities, use and re-use of data, interoperability, security and confidentiality

After graduation, the UMass Chan student

• States the strengths and potential vulnerabilities of the electronic health record (EHR)
• Describes related healthcare informatics applications including in healthcare computerized provider order entry, health information exchange and interoperability, clinical decision support, and the use of electronic data
• Understands the vulnerabilities of EHRs and related informatics platforms including service interruptions and information breaches

Population health and health equity

Scope: The graduate sees how health outcomes vary within and across populations and what influences this
variability including access to care.

After graduation, the UMass Chan student

• Defines these terms and will identify why they are important concepts within the provision of healthcare
• Understands the concepts of bias and structural racism
• Describes the impact of language and culture on healthcare delivery

Value in healthcare

Scope: The graduate conceptualizes that value means providing the best possible care while minimizing costs, to the
benefit of patients, providers, delivery systems, and payers.

After graduation, the UMass Chan student

• Explains the concepts of value-based care and high-value care
• States the rationale for and is able to apply evidence-based medicine and practice guidelines

Systems thinking and healthcare leadership

Scope: The graduate appreciates the interrelatedness between parts of the healthcare system and applies that
knowledge to decision-making and action

After graduation, the UMass Chan student:

• Can describe how patients' experience of care and their outcomes is impacted by the network formed between
  patients, families, delivery systems, and providers and that they must function within this network
• Can identify functions of healthcare leaders as they influence policy, procedures, and culture within systems
  across a wide variety of settings