I3 Population Health Collaborative

The I3 Population Health Collaborative is a learning collaborative of 27 academic primary care programs in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia and includes family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatric programs. The goal of the I3 Population Health Collaborative is to create momentum for widespread ambulatory practice improvement. This program focuses on the following changes: improve patient experience; increase access, quality and cost effectiveness of care in populations taken care of by primary care residency practices; and train primary care residents in advanced models of primary care.

This expertise in practice transformation and new best practices will be “exponentially distributed” in three ways that are expected to improve the health of communities across North Carolina, South Carolina & Virginia:

1. a direct improvement in the quality of care for patients served by the participating teaching practices
2. a secondary impact on the practices of graduates of the participating residency programs
3. a third wave of redesign and practice improvement as program faculty become local experts, assisting practicing physicians in their region.

This is the third iteration of the I3 Collaborative.  Building on prior success in improving chronic care and attaining National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) patient-centered medical home (PCMH) recognition for residency practices, this round of the I3 Collaborative is focused on improving the care of populations by continuing to develop PCMHs and coordination of care in the community. Additionally, new curricula related to advanced primary care practices and quality improvement will be developed to ensure that future primary care physicians are prepared to practice in and lead PCMHs as well as other new models of care.  They will become primary care leaders striving for improvement in clinical quality, patient experience and reducing the cost of healthcare. 

Each of the 27 teaching practices has a multidisciplinary improvement team to participate in the Collaborative activities.  Sequential learning sessions, on-site consultations and multiple monthly webinars are provided to participants. Additionally, teams have access to a SharePoint site for the sharing of practice redesign, quality improvement resources and innovative curricula.  The unique challenges faced by academic settings in conducting practice redesign are explicitly discussed by the Collaborative.  Participants also collaborate on developing new curricula and teaching strategies related to quality improvement, practice redesign, PCMH and population health management.