The Center is pleased to host leading health policy experts at our lunchtime seminar series.
May 21 seminar: "The Dementia Initiative: Bringing Humanity to Long-term Care"
Dementia is a devastating condition, not only for aging individuals but for their families and for society itself. While the prevalence of persons living with dementia has been rapidly increasing, it was not until the Affordable Care Act of 2010 that the phrase, "dementia care training," was even added to federal regulations on long-term care workforce training requirements.
One of the unique challenges to caring for persons living with dementia is moving from a disease-centered approach (focused on treating clinical symptoms) to a "person-centered approach" focused on more humanistic and holistic treatments. This new approach emphasizes developing a relationship with the patient, understanding their needs and concerns, and taking into account their psychological, as well as physical, state.
In this May 21 seminar, Lené Levy-Storms, a Center faculty associate and associate director of the UCLA/Borun Center for Gerontological Research, will describe The Dementia Initiative, a national coalition of researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers engaged in efforts to promote a person-centered approach into dementia care. Levy-Storms will give an overview of the trend towards person-centered care and describe in more detail a range of specific person-centered care practices, as well as the scientific and clinical evidence to date of the effectiveness of these practices.
Lené Levy-Storms holds a B.S. degree in psychology from UC Davis, a MPH in biostatistics and PhD in public health and in 2000 joined the UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics. She is now an associate professor and now holds a joint appointment in the departments of Social Welfare and Medicine/Geriatrics.
Watch the seminar here.
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Recent seminars:
April 30: "How did we do in year one?"
Nearly 1.4 million Californians have enrolled in health care coverage through Covered California and an additional 1.9 million through an expanded Medi-Cal program. Do these numbers exceed expectations? Will they be revised up or down in the coming year? And what can we do to enroll the remaining uninsured in 2015?
In a Wednesday, April 30, live-streaming webinar, Gerald Kominski, the director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and a professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, discussed what the numbers mean and what we can learn to make enrollment efforts even more successful in year two. Watch the webinar here.
April 23: "Patients without patience"
More than 5 million patients are admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) annually, accounting for 14 percent ($107 billion) of total hospital expenditures. As demand for ICU care increases, patients often endure excessive wait times for bed assignment due to capacity shortages, further straining emergency departments.
In this April 23 seminar, Elisa Long, assistant professor in Decisions, Operations & Technology Management at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, presented a study on efficient use of intensive care unit (ICU) resources.
Specifically, Long developed a model that estimates whether the amount of time a patient waits for a bed has an impact on their health. Long also examined whether rapid discharge from the ICU (in order to free up beds) has an adverse effect on whether that patient is readmitted later. Watch the seminar here.
March 19: "Promise or Peril? How Low-Income Older Californians Are Faring in the Face of Major Health Care Delivery Changes"
About 400,000 California seniors insured through both Medicare and Medi-Cal are currently being enrolled in a Medi-Cal managed care program called Cal MediConnect -- unless they actively opt out of the program. The new program, designed to improve care coordination, increase efficiency, and result in better health outcomes, has also created concern and confusion among seniors eligible for the program.
In this webinar, Center researchers Kathryn Kietzman and Jacqueline Torres presented recent data that show how this physically, socially and financially vulnerable group may be affected by the transition into Cal MediConnect,and how it will affect their ability to live at home.
January 22: "Patient centered care: meaning, evidence and future"
If quality and safety improvement are all about the patient, why is there a growing and influential "patient-centered care movement"? Is it because 20 years of quality and safety improvements have been successful, or is there another reason? Is it only about health care or is there a public health and health policy aspect? In the first Center seminar of 2014, Dr. John Øvretveit, director of research and professor of health care innovation implementation and evaluation at the Medical Management Centre at The Karolinska Institute, considers the meaning of "patient-centered care" and the international movement, and provides examples of some of the ideas and evidence of impact. His presentation also outlines the future implications for patients, researchers and health care workers. Watch this seminar here.
More seminars and webinars can be viewed on our Center Videos page.
The Center's Health Policy Seminars are held once a month. Please check back with us here to view upcoming speakers or receive announcements by subscribing to our e-newsletter.
Past speakers include:
- Gerald Kominski, Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
- Michael Goldstein, a UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Faculty Associate and professor of public health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
- John Ovreteit, director of research and professor of health innovation and evaluation at the Karolinska Institute
- Steven P. Wallace, Center associate director and professor in the UCLA School of Public Health
- Dani Filc and Nadav Dividovitch, senior lecturers, Ben Gurion University, Israel.
- Sheila Kuehl, former chair of the California Senate Health Committee
- Mark Litwin, professor of health services, UCLA School of Public Health, and urology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
- Dylan H. Roby, research scientist, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; assistant professor, UCLA School of Public Health.
- Jean Balgrosky, a UCLA lecturer on information technology and former SVP and chief information officer for Scripps Health and chief information officer for Holy Cross Health System; and Paul C. Fu Jr., an associate clinical professor in the UCLA Department of Pediatrics and Health Services (where he also serves as director of clinical informatics) and the former chief medical information officer at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Watch the seminar.
- Allison K. Hoffman, faculty associate, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; acting professor, UCLA School of Law. Watch the seminar.
- Robert M. Kaplan, incoming director of the National Institutes of Health's Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research. Watch the seminar.
...and many more!
