The American Academy of Family Physicians stated in its 2004 report "The Future of Family Medicine: A Collaborative Project of the Family Medicine Community," that "steps must be taken to ensure every American has a personal medical home that serves as the focal point" to achieve the services that aggregate comprehensive care.

News facts:

• The Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN) is sponsoring a 90-minute webinar on January 29, 2008 devoted to building an advanced medical home to improve chronic care outcomes.
• Scheduled Speakers: Dawn Bazarko, senior vice president of clinical operations at United Healthcare, which has launched a pilot medical homes project for its commercial populations, and Dr. Lonnie E. Fuller, medical director for the Pennsylvania Medicaid ACCESS Plus PCCM-DM Program.
• Conference Highlights: Coordinating care effectively in medical homes; creating marketing and communication strategies for medical homes; evaluating quality and cost outcomes of medical homes; coordinating care across patient conditions, services and settings over time; encouraging patients to engage in self-management and providing them with the resources to do so; redesigning the physician office to move toward the advanced medical home; educating, training and engaging physicians in the medical home model; and adopting and implementing health IT to promote quality of care and exchange of health information among care providers and coordinators.
• Target Audience: CEOs, medical directors, disease management directors, managers and coordinators, health plan executives, care management nurses, business development and strategic planning directors.
• Webinar Formats: 90-minute live webinar on January 29, 2008 includes a 30-minute Q&A; "On-Demand" rebroadcast available January 31, 2008; 90-minute recording on CD-ROM with printed transcript available February 19, 2008. For conference details, please visit http://www.hin.com/cgi-local/link/news/pl.cgi?advmedhomepr.