Imagine a world where...

There was good information on the performance of the health care system.

• Where diagnostic and therapeutic interventions were rigorously tested,
• Untested interventions were clearly identified and,
• Local practice patterns were routinely monitored.

Patients had access to this information and were invited to participate in decisions about their own care

• Where balanced information on common clinical strategies was readily available to inform patients and aid in their decisions, and
• A culture of decision making was the norm in clinical medicine

Policymakers had access to this information to guide their decisions, in order to

• Better balance the allocation of resources both across geography and health care disciplines;
• Improve the quality of genuinely effective care, reduce errors, and
• Make universal access politically possible as boundaries of medicine were progressively narrowed to support those interventions that work and those that fully informed patients choose to have

The concept of health was given new meaning, thereby

• Halting current trends to medicalize the human experience and
• Moving toward a new vision of wellness that recognizes the value of healthy lifestyles, work, and human relationships

Dr. James Weinstein
Director, The Dartmouth Institute for
Health Policy and Clinical Practice

Imagination is becoming reality through the work of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI). In every one of these areas, TDI is effecting real change. For three decades, Institute members have asked questions no one else was asking. And the answers they found, documenting geographic and ethnic variations in the delivery and quality of care, increasing overdiagnosis and overtreatment of patients, improved outcomes and cost savings through shared decision making, quality improvement, and new approaches to systems of care, have radically changed our understanding of our health care system.

TDI’s unique community of clinician-scholars, epidemiologists, economists, social scientists, statisticians, and others are putting forth solutions, offering innovative and achievable policy changes, and proving through demonstration how health care can be delivered more effectively, with better outcomes, improved patient and provider satisfaction, and at less cost.

Challenging questions. Provocative Answers. Enlightened Solutions. The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice will continue to drive real change in health care. Our vision and our commitment: to achieve a patient-centered, high quality, cost-effective health care system with access and excellence for all. We can’t imagine anything less.