About the Center

The Center for Medical Practice Research and Education seeks to bend the health care cost curve by studying cost variances to develop cost-sensitive best practices that lead to sustained change and benefit the common good. The Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO) data mart of more than 3 million insurance claims serves as the basis for the Center. All of the work of this innovative initiative is based on these belief statements:

• Every citizen has personal duty to be well, with the assistance of their doctor and health team.
• Appropriate-use criteria are essential to be use by you and your doctor (or “the patient” or other appropriate depending on audience throughout) to help understand if the benefits are greater than risks for you to receive specific procedures.
• Value-Focused best practices – that take cost into account—and will be used by you and your doctor to protect as best possible affordability of health care while providing the excellent care we need.

The Society has

• Instituted programs where doctors design these Value-Focused Best Practices and evaluate the suitability of AUC
• Programs to help doctors with Performance Improvement, and even meet their specialty’s requirement for this activity for Continuing Medical Education credits
• Initiated a deployment strategy with public health, employers and others at the community level, through the Society’s Foundation (Link)

To Learn More

Tim Bartholow, MD
Medical Director

Rebecca Thompson, CPA
Business Development Director

608.442.3800
866.442.3800
center@wismed.org