This page offers educational resources, research, tool kits, and other information for APG Members. If you wish to contribute items, please email communications@apg.org.

Technical Volume 2: Cybersecurity Practices for Medium and Large Healthcare Organizations

This volume will help answer the question, “How do I mitigate the five threats outlined in the Main Document?” Technical Volume 2 outlines healthcare cybersecurity best practices for medium-sized and large healthcare organizations. Medium-sized and large organizations generally have dedicated information technology (IT) departments, and very likely have dedicated cybersecurity staff. Organizational personnel typically have an awareness of the cybersecurity threats faced to patients and their organization.

Click here to access the 2023 edition. For information on the “Cybersecurity for the Clinician” video training series click here.

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Step into Your Patients’ Shoes Experiencing Dementia with Immersive Training

The California Department of Aging CalGrows Innovation Fund provides free access to Embodied Labs web-based immersive training. These trainings allow professionals to step into the shoes of those they care for through first-person experiences of health conditions and everyday life realities related to aging, including Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia and social isolation.

Click here to access the immersive experiences. Access is available until October 31, 2024, and includes the following playlists: Successful Aging in Place, A Journey Through Alzheimer’s, and Actionable Empathy in Dementia.

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The Outcomes of Implementing and Integrating Comprehensive Medication Management in
Team-Based Care

APG Partner GTMRx has published an evidence-based resource for organizations that want to explore or implement the integration of pharmacists and comprehensive medication management into their medical care delivery. Click here to access “The Outcomes of Implementing and Integrating Comprehensive Medication Management in Team-Based Care: A Review of the Evidence on Quality, Access and Costs, December 2023.”

For additional GTMRx resources and evidence-based summaries, click here.

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Obesity Tool Kit and Educational Information

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) Obesity Advisory Group created this toolkit to address both clinical and operational workflows for treating obesity in primary care practice. To access the toolkit and their website click here.

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Building Clinical Trial and Health Research Access for People of Color via Community Health Centers (CHCs)

In support of value-based and patient-centered care, physician groups and community health centers can join the effort to expand access and diversity to clinical studies that support patients’ needs and interests. Inclusion and equity in health research and clinical studies is an ongoing challenge and one that has been deemed a priority by the FDA, CMS, and other health care stakeholders.

To access the white paper and toolkit, click here.

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Humana Value-Based Care Report 2023

What exactly is Value-Based Care?

Value-based care (VBC) is a term that may not always resonate with people. So what does it mean for patients and what does it mean for physicians and other clinicians?  To access the Value-Based Care Report click here.

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Training Primary Care Physicians in For‑Profit, Value‑Based
Care Clinics

Primary care is undergoing a paradigm shift to value-based care, a transformation increasingly propelled by for-profit entities such as health care payers, retailers, and startups backed by private equity and venture capital. By 2030, at least 30% of primary care may be delivered by nontraditional companies under value-based care arrangements. To access the report click here.

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White House SDOH playbook

On November 16, the White House released the first-ever U.S. Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health (the playbook), a policy guide aimed at integrating social services, public health, and the health care system to improve health outcomes in local communities by breaking down federal agency and local system silos. To access the playbook click here.

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IHA California Regional Health Care Cost & Quality Atlas

As we all know, there is wide variation in health care costs and quality throughout our country. In California, there is now respected, published data from the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) to support how key quality performance and cost measures are vastly superior in HMO products when measured against PPO products. This alone affects 30 million Californians on a multi-payer platform with commercial insurance, Medicare, and Medi-Cal data.

The IHA California Regional Health Care Cost & Quality Atlas aggregates and reports data from commercial insurance, Medicare, and Medi-Cal. Results from the Atlas help purchasers, health plans, and policymakers reduce variation and achieve high-quality, affordable, patient-centered care.

For more information on the Atlas and these findings, please visit: atlas.iha.org

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National Opioid Crisis

The 19th US Surgeon General issued a letter to 2.3 million practicing physicians, dentists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, calling on them to join the movement to help fight the country’s prescription opioid epidemic.

 

An example of how we’re teaming up with local initiatives to combat this national epidemic is through our collaboration with Safe Med LA: Prescription Drug Abuse Coalition of Los Angeles County and coordination with a group of physicians and providers called the Medical Practice Action Team (MPAT) to assist in this effort. Within MPAT, there are three safe prescribing workgroup initiatives: Emergency Care, General Medical Practice, and Urgent Care.

America’s Physician Groups was instrumental in developing, implementing, and executing action plans for the safe pain prescribing toolkits for the General Medical Practice and Urgent Care initiatives. Together with our communities, we will provide a solution to ensure safe prescribing practices.

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Downloadable cancer screenings and stroke awareness resources. Click on the links below:

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Health Care’s Perfect Storm of 2024: National Antitrust Regulations Collide With State Developments for a Tidal Wave of Deal Scrutiny.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have influenced health care for years, creating everything from megasystem consolidations to small- and mid-scale provider partnerships. But is that about to change — or at least significantly slow down?

For more information on these findings, please click here.

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