Smart Regulation: Can New Types of Governance Improve Health?

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The symposium examines how new forms of regulation and governance affect prospects for health systems change and improvement. New governance includes a wide variety of processes but all differ from top-down, command and control style regulation.

Recent examples of new governance in action include public-private partnerships in electronic record adoption, public disclosure of hospital infection rates in Europe, standardized metrics for cancer treatment, and private rulemaking in organ transplantation. These innovations feature a participatory model of regulation in which multiple stakeholders collaborate to achieve a common purpose.

Scholars from the United States and the European Union in the fields of health services research, clinical medicine, political science, public affairs, law and social work will present and comment on papers addressing the prospects for new forms of governance in many areas of the health system.

Date		Presentation
10/09/2009		New Institutions for Governance: Can They Integrate Systematic Evidence, Tacit Knowledge of Clinicians, and Trust of Patients? S. Greer
		New Institutions for Governance M. Das, N. Terry View description Emerging institutions may provide alternatives to improve health care outcomes. The panelists discuss this through informatics, quality improvement, and private/public rulemaking. How do health care professionals, government officials and the public interact in these new governance institutions? And how do various modes of interaction enhance or diminish trust among health care professionals and their commitment to improvement?
		Quality Improvement Institutions from Both Sides of the Atlantic: The National Quality Forum and the National Institute for Clinical Excellene B. Hoflund, S. Bryan
		Private Rulemaking: An Alternative to Bureaucratic Rulemaking D. Weimer
		Infection Control in the Hospital Setting: An Analysis of Regulatory Governance C. Coglianese View description How, in theory and in practice, do alternative forms of regulation work in the health system? These alternatives, including private rulemaking, management-based regulation (incentives), and traditional rules and enforcement, will be examined in the areas of prevention and control of hospital-based infections and the fight against cancer. What is the influence of new forms of participation—including patient networks, patient self-management, and consumer access to medical information—on health system change with particular attention to the fight against cancer?
		The New Campaign Against Cancer from Both Sides of the Atlantic: Entrepreneurs, Networks, and Public Data L. Trubek, T. Oliver
		Smarter Governance in Practice in the US and EU: Can It Work? R. Baeten