OAKLAND — The University of California's Center for Health Quality and Innovation showcased the system's work to improve health care delivery at its first colloquium Friday (April 27) at the Oakland Marriott City Center.

More than 200 people attended the event, including UC Health faculty and staff, leadership of Kaiser Permanente's Care Management Institute and the California Health Care Safety Net Institute, as well as public hospital clinicians and state Department of Public Health staff. Speakers included investigators from the center's first round of grants, which seek to improve patient safety; recipients of the UC Health Fellowship, which supports projects to improve the quality and value of care; and other leaders in health care delivery innovations.

The colloquium talks and panel discussions will be aired on UCTV. As links become available in the coming weeks, details will be posted on the UC Health site, along with any other center updates.

"This was an enormously impressive day," said John Stobo, M.D., senior vice president for UC Health and chairman of the innovation center board. "What impressed me the most was the breadth of the quality." 

Speakers described projects ranging from stopping blood clots to decreasing infections to expanding palliative care to optimizing CT radiation doses. (View the agenda online.)

"We have the intellectual horsepower to create change," said innovation center Executive Director Terry Leach, R.N., Esq. "We know we picked the right people because they're so committed to UC."

UC Health launched its innovation center in October 2010 with funding from its medical centers at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco. The center is charged with identifying best practices, convening key stakeholders to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and funding innovative projects that demonstrate improved value in the health care delivery system.

"It's identifying some of our young rising stars and giving them an opportunity to do their thing," said colloquium keynote speaker David Feinberg, M.D., M.B.A., president of the UCLA Health System. The center also shows value by bringing people together throughout UC Health, he said.

"This is a huge step forward," said UC San Diego physicist Thomas Nelson, Ph.D., a co-investigator on a center grant to optimize CT radiation doses across UC medical centers. "It's a great model of collaboration for UC."

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