BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Health Dialog, a leading provider of integrated population health management solutions for health plans, risk-bearing providers and self-insured employers, announced today that Dr. Peter Goldbach, its chief medical officer, will join national advocates for shared decision making (SDM) at the National Quality Forum (NQF) workshop, “Using Shared Decision Making to Drive Population Health Strategy,” held on March 19 in Philadelphia. The workshop follows the NQF’s 2017 landmark Call to Action to make SDM a standard of person-centered care and subsequent “National Quality Partners Playbook™: Shared Decision Making in Healthcare,” which the NQF released March 12 at its annual conference. The Playbook is the first of its kind to provide practical, actionable solutions to overcome common barriers to SDM in clinical practice.

SDM is a collaborative process between physicians and patients that may rely on the use of decision aids, which offer evidence-based information about treatment choices to help patients understand their options, consider their personal values and preferences, and prepare them to talk with their provider to make a more informed decision. More than a decade of published studies show SDM reduces elective surgeries, reduces costs, drives better patient outcomes and produces happier patients who are more satisfied with their provider and their care.

“SDM’s time has come,” said Peter Goldbach, M.D., chief medical officer for Health Dialog, a pioneer in SDM. “Extensive data, spanning twenty years of practice, demonstrate clearly its effectiveness in producing better health outcomes for patients while reducing medical costs. Using SDM, patients feel empowered, more informed and more satisfied with their care choices and care providers. With value-based care finally upon us, there is no better time nor method to deliver high-quality, patient-centric, cost-effective care than through the practice of SDM.”

The NQF workshop joins the expertise of NQF’s Shared Decision Making Action Team, 20 SDM advocates representing a diverse range of perspectives—patient, provider and health system—with featured speakers, including clinicians from the nation’s most mature, successful SDM programs. Workshop speakers will discuss the fundamental principles of SDM and share key strategies for its successful use across a variety of care settings. They include:

• Peter Goldbach, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Health Dialog @PeterGoldbachMD @HealthDialog
• Erik Hess, MD, Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham @ErikHessMD
• Alan Manning, MPA, Executive Vice President, Planetree International @Planetree
• Paul Sherman, MD, MHA, Chief Operating Officer and Medical Director, Care Delivery, Kaiser Permanente Washington @kpwashington
• Emily Transue, MD, MHA, FACP, Associate Medical Director, Clinical Quality and Care Transformation, Washington State Health Care Authority @WA_Health_Care
• Leigh Simmons, MD, Medical Director, MGH Health Division Science Center, Internal Medicine, Partners HealthCare @PartnersNews
• Diana Stilwell, MPH, Director of Content Services, Health Dialog @HealthDialog

The pre-conference workshop is part of Thomas Jefferson University’s 18^th Population Health Colloquium. Clinicians, care teams and payers can register for the NQF workshop online. The Playbook can be accessed at the NQF’s web site (www.qualityforum.org).

About Health Dialog:

Health Dialog is a leading provider of population health management solutions. The company works with the nation’s largest third-party payers, employers and providers to improve the health and wellness of their members, employees and patients while reducing costs and improving performance in key quality measures, such as NCQA’s HEDIS and CMS’ Stars ratings. Health Dialog’s unique capabilities include analytics, a patient portal, a multi-channel coaching platform, shared decision-making tools and a 24/7 nurse line. For more information, visit www.healthdialog.com. Health Dialog is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD).

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