Last day of ACPE 2010! See you at the Fall Institute in Tucson, AZ

Today is the last day of the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference. The Leadership Summit ended on Saturday and several other sessions (Vanguard Program, Managing Physician Performance, Leading on the Edge: Complexity in Health Care, and several others) ended yesterday. Today, the Physician in Management and a few other courses concluded.

This conference was a great meeting and I enjoyed attending the sessions and meeting physician executives from all over the country. Several attendees were also international physicians. I'm really excited about what ACPE is doing as the organization continues to grow and evolve. More physicians are recognizing the importance of executive leadership and many are investing in continuing education, graduate degrees, and valuable networking through ACPE events. If you haven't joined ACPE yet, I'd encourage you to join and make ACPE your professional home.

This concludes my coverage of the ACPE 2010 Annual CME Conference. Don't forget to mark your calendars for the 2010 ACPE Fall Institute November 14 - 18, 2010 in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to learn more about the Fall Institute and to see a list of courses that will be offered in November.

ACPE 2010: Focus on Physician Leadership

I've been in Washington D.C. attending the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference. Many of the sessions have been focusing on Physician Leadership. Take a look at some of these session titles:

• Hospital and Health System Board Leadership
• Coaching & Mentoring Physicians to Higher Performance
• Leading on the Edge: Complexity in Health Care
• Leadership Summit
• Managing Physician Performance
• On the Frontline! Leadership for Department Heads
• Leadership & Governance for Group Practice Board Members

If you're interested in learning how you can become an effective physician leader, I encourage you to join ACPE and to attend the ACPE meetings. Physician leadership is becoming a critical theme in the era of healthcare reform. So, whether you're a practicing physician, an administrative physician, or an independent consultant, get involved with ACPE.

ACPE Graduate Degree Programs: MBA and MMM

I'm in Washington D.C. attending the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference. Here, you can learn about graduate degrees (master of business administration or MBA and master of medical management or MMM) offered through the following partner universities:

• University of Massachusetts Amherst Isenberg School of Management (MBA)
• Carnegie Mellon Heinz College, School of Public Policy & Management (MMM)
• University of Southern California Marshall School of Business (MMM)

Interested in pursuing yet another graduate degree? Here are some reasons why you want to consider a graduate degree:
    * Enhance your credibility in the business side of medicine
    * Broaden your perspective and learn new approaches
    * Realize the power of both leading and following - medicine as a team sport
    * Stay competitive - most management jobs now require a graduate business degree

If you're serious about making a career transition that involves more management responsibilities, then you may want to consider a graduate degree that focuses on administration or medical management. I've spoken with many physician executives who've told me why they chose to pursue an MBA vs. an MMM. I'd encourage you to do the same.

Connecting with Twitter contacts @consultdoc @harrygreenspun here @ACPE 2010

I've been in Washington D.C. attending the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference. It's been great to connect with some Twitter contacts like @consultdoc and @harrygreenspun. Every time I attend a major meeting, I meet several contacts from my online social network. It's always great to put a real face to a social media username.

Mark W. Browne, MD, MMM, CPE, FAAP (@consultdoc) is a Principal Consultant for Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C. I've connected with Mark on Twitter and LinkedIn. Mark manages the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) group on LinkedIn.

Harry Greenspun, M.D., (@harrygreenspun) is the chief medical officer of the Dell Perot Systems healthcare group. I've connected with Harry on Facebook and LinkedIn. Given that he's constantly traveling all over the world, you can reach him through social networking sites.

Social media is slowly picking up among physician executives. Make sure to follow @ACPE on Twitter. PC World recently published a story titled, "Twitter: More a News Medium Than Social Network." Twitter continues to evolve and many people use Twitter to link to an interesting article online.

Join the ACPE group on LinkedIn and read the blog written by Barry Silbaugh, MD, FACPE, CEO of the American College of Physician Executives.

Click here for highlights from ACPE 2010.

This coverage of ACPE is sponsored by Practice Fusion EMR. Practice Fusion’s Electronic Medical Record system includes charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, secure messaging and lab connections – all at no cost. Join the fastest growing EMR community today!

ACPE 2010: Complexity Science with Dave Snowden

I'm in Washington D.C. attending the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference. This morning, Dave Snowden led an interesting session and a workshop on the topic of "complexity science." This session was a part of the Physician Leadership Summit. What did he talk about?

A leader’s framework for decision-making, complexity is poised to help current and future leaders address the challenges and opportunities they face.

Let's take a look at a snippet from his 2007 HBR (Harvard Business Review) article titled, "A Leader's Framework for Decision Making." You can read this article on HBR.com by clicking here.

Complexity is more a way of thinking about the world than a new way of working with mathematical models. Over a century ago, Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific management, revolutionized leadership. Today, advances in complexity science, combined with knowledge from the cognitive sciences, are transforming the field once again. Complexity is poised to help current and future leaders make sense of advanced technology, globalization, intricate markets, cultural change, and much more. In short, the science of complexity can help all of us address the challenges and opportunities we face in a new epoch of human history.

ACPE 2010: Health IT breakout session led by Dr. Harry Greenspun

I'm in Washington D.C. attending the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference. This afternoon, I attended the Leadership Summit breakout session titled, "Meaningful Use: An Update on Healthcare Reform." Before the session began, I had the chance to sit down and have a great conversation with Dr. Harry Greenspun, Chief Medical Officer for Dell Services. To learn more about Harry, click here and make sure to follow him on Twitter (@harrygreenspun). Keep an eye out for his new book.

The session began with a conversation about access to care and health care reform. Since we were in Washington D.C., we spoke about politicians like Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Where and how did they get their medical care? What can we learn from their decisions and how does that information impact the ability for average consumers to access care? We had a lively discussion about healthcare reform, politics, and health information. To achieve better health outcomes, we need to evaluate medical data. That's what "meaningful use" is all about.

Harry also spent a few minutes speaking about sometime called "Value-Based Insurance Design." The discussion returned back to a focus around value (which reminded me of the keynote from this morning by David Cutler). How do we simultaneously improve access, cost, and quality?

ACPE 2010: Leadership Summit

Here at the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference, one track is the "Leadership Summit."

Today, the following breakout sessions took place in the morning and in the afternoon:

• The Role of Information Technology
  Join Harry G. Greenspun from Perot Systems, for a look at how information technology will be used to make health care reform a reality.
• Quality and Patient Safety: Working as a Team
  What can health care learn from aviation and engineering? ACPE CEO Barry Silbaugh will moderate a lively discussion on the value of teamwork with Jeff Skiles, co-pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, when it crashed into the Hudson River in New York, and Rollin “Terry” Fairbanks, University of Rochester.
• How Quality Improves the Bottom Line: CFO and CMO Working Together Reduces Costs and Increases Value
  John Byrnes, MD present a case study on two Michigan hospitals where a partnership between cardiology, nursing, and quality leaders resulted in significant financial savings.

Tomorrow there's a workshop session titled, "Complexity Science" with Dave Snowden. A leader’s framework for decision-making, complexity is poised to help current and future leaders address the challenges and opportunities they face. Tomorrow afternoon, there's a trip to the National Museum of Health and Medicine at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

Click here for highlights from ACPE 2010.

This coverage of ACPE is sponsored by Practice Fusion EMR. Practice Fusion’s Electronic Medical Record system includes charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, secure messaging and lab connections – all at no cost. Join the fastest growing EMR community today!

ACPE 2010: Physician in Management Seminar (PIM): Finance in Health Care Organizations

This morning, I attended the Physician in Management Seminar (PIM) here at the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference. 15 to 18k physicians have gone through this seminar to become stronger leaders within their organizations. You can learn about the PIM seminar here.

The first session today was titled, "Finance in Health Care Organizations."

Learn key financial concepts and basic economic principles that will earn you respect from administration and admiration from clinicians.
    * Blow away the smoke when dealing with CFOs and accountants.
    * Interpret financial statements-they don't say what you think they say.
    * Discover what costs are really relevant for decision-making.
    * Create cost and payment structures that work to your advantage.
    * Learn why you can make a profit and still go out of business-and how to avoid it.
    * Faculty: Hugh Long, MBA, PhD, JD

Interested in learning more about finance? You can participate in this ACPE course titled, "Finance in Health Care Organizations" by clicking here.

Click here for highlights from ACPE 2010.

This coverage of ACPE is sponsored by Practice Fusion EMR. Practice Fusion’s Electronic Medical Record system includes charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, secure messaging and lab connections – all at no cost. Join the fastest growing EMR community today!

ACPE 2010 Annual Conference: Keynote by Professor David Culter

Today is the first day of the 2010 ACPE (American College of Physician Executives) Annual CME Conference.

This morning's keynote was delivered by professor David Cutler (Harvard economics professor and senior health care advisor to President Barack Obama, Cutler was recently named one of the 30 people who could have a powerful impact on health care by Modern Healthcare magazine.).

His presentation this morning was titled, "The Coming Health Care Transformation." Professor Cutler spoke of reform and focused on how we can improve the value of care. There will be an unrelenting focus on value.  Affordability and accessibility are the keys to coverage and we've seen this in Massachusetts. However, the federal deficit in on a collision course with a vast growth occurring in health care expenses.

The challenges we now face include:

• Insurance reform
• Coverage expansion
• Improving the value of care

How do we improve value? When we think of value, we must think of the clinical dimension along with the service dimension. The clinical dimension involves the cost-effectiveness of the care provided. Service quality still needs improvement. Patients are not satisfied with the service aspects due to: long wait times, inaccessibility to providers, etc.

2010 ACPE Annual CME Conference in Washington D.C.

The American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) is having its Annual CME Conference in Washington D.C. April 30 - May 4, 2010. They have a great agenda scheduled for this powerful weekend and I'm sure there will be many physician executives traveling from all over the country to attend this meeting. Make sure to leverage the group discount if you're attending with several other physicians from your organization.

Physicians are discussing this meeting on the ACPE LinkedIn Group and it seems like the Leadership Summit and the Vanguard Program will be very popular this year. You can also view a video of

View an introductory video on the Annual Meeting by Barry Silbaugh, MD (CEO, ACPE)

April 30 - May 4, 2010.
Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center
201 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD