A Research Agenda for the Patient-Centered Medical Home

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The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is emerging as a model for providing population-based, patient-centered primary care. Despite professional interest and endorsement, there is limited evidence of the impact the PCHM model on the cost and quality of health care services. Therefore, questions remain on how to best implement, measure, and pay for this new service delivery model. Further implementation requires research to better understand the model's impact on providers and policymakers. Specifically, there is a need to understand the marginal effectiveness of the PCMH over the traditional primary care model. The Research Agenda for a Patient-Centered Medical Home conference convened national researchers, representatives of major primary care professional organizations, health care purchasers, payers, patient advocates, and policymakers to discuss the research agenda needed to move PCMH from a demonstration model to an evidenced-based standard of care.

The specific aims of the conference were to:

  • Inform and advance the state-of-the-art-and-science and real-world experience about the PCMH.
  • Develop partnerships and build capacity to implement a practical evaluation model that can be used by health plans, government payers, and policymakers to assess components of the PCMH and alternative models.
  • Develop and recommend a research agenda to inform the development and broad implementation of the PCMH model. The research agenda will specifically address the “business case” for adopting the PCMH model as well as the clinical and cost consequences of implementing PCMH.
  • Disseminate the synthesis of the conference, including background and descriptive information, via peer-reviewed literature, the Web, and presentations at relevant national health policy and professional association meetings.

The conference was held on July 27th and 28th, 2009 in Washington DC. It was cohosted by the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the Academic Pediatrics Association, with support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund. The conference included six invited papers. The papers were published as a group and accompanied by an investigative team editorial in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.