OPINIONThe partnership principle: Together we are strongerAMA Leader Commentary. By Cecil B. Wilson, MD, Sept. 4, 2006. A message to all AMA members from the chair of the AMA Board of Trustees, Cecil B. Wilson, MD. I continue to be struck by the power and success of partnerships within the House of Medicine, the multiplier effect that partnerships generate when each partner, acting in concert with others, becomes more influential and effective, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. One person who is acting alone might be effective. That same person working in partnership with others leverages individual influence and effectiveness enormously. Benjamin Franklin saw an almost spiritual aspect to partnership when he wrote, "All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world." A classic example is the American Medical Association's Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement. It is a partnership of groups working in common cause in response to a growing need for measures of performance, for standards of excellence. Serious work indeed. The AMA convened the consortium in 2000, provides staffing and has invested millions of dollars in this effort. Membership includes more than 90 national medical specialty and state medical societies, as well as the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a number of Quality Improvement Organizations. The consortium will have developed approximately 150 measures by the end of 2006. This will give physicians the needed tools to continue to advance quality of care for patients. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2006 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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