Newswise — The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) and Pfizer Inc. proudly announce the launch of the latest Models of Excellence Collaborative. This yearly program is designed to bring together medical groups for a 12-month collaborative and support them in their efforts to improve the quality of patient care. Longtime partners in promoting excellence among medical groups, Pfizer and AMGA are launching the collaborative to bring together and support medical groups in their efforts to empower patients and engage them in the care process. The collaborative and participating organizations were announced at AMGA's 2005 Annual Conference in Los Angeles.

The ongoing, core themes of the collaborative are innovation, patient-centered care practices, and patient engagement in care. This year, AMGA and Pfizer requested proposals focusing on patient co-management. Organizations invited to participate in the collaborative were selected based on their proposed programs. Each program was evaluated with respect to its ability to be implemented through office practices, applicability to multiple clinical areas and conditions, innovation in the approach to improvement, transferability, and ease of integration with a variety of group practices or with existing programs.

AMGA selected four organizations as grantees through a blinded review process. Additional groups were invited to join the collaborative and participate in the development of tools and best practices that will be transferable to other medical group settings. The following medical groups were selected to receive a $25,000 grant toward the development of their proposed programs:

"¢ The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, Fort Worth, Texas "¢ Deaconess Billings Clinic Foundation, Billings, Montana "¢ Midwest Heart Specialists, Downers Grove, Illinois"¢ Summit Medical Group, Summit, New Jersey

In addition, the collaborative will bring together representatives from the following medical groups:

"¢ Austin Regional Clinic, Austin, Texas "¢ Kelsey Seybold Clinic, Houston, Texas "¢ Mercy Medical Group, St. Louis, Missouri "¢ Mountain View Medical Group, Colorado Springs, Colorado"¢ Providence Medical Group, Beaverton, Oregon

A 12-month schedule of events and activities includes many opportunities for participants to share insights, opinions and resources needed to produce and test final strategies. Activities include:

"¢ The initial kick-off at the AMGA National Conference, March 9 to 12, 2005, in Los Angeles, CA"¢ First meeting April 7 to 8, 2005 in Naperville, Illinois, hosted by Edward Heart Hospital (one of the Midwest Heart Specialists sites)"¢ Bimonthly WebExâ„¢ (WebEx Communications, Inc.) conference calls, during which participants will present status reports on their projects and discuss topics related to their programs with other representatives"¢ Online resources, such as LISTSERV® (L-Soft International, Inc.) and a secure area on the AMGA Web site, for posting tools and other materials to share with the collaborative"¢ A meeting in spring 2006, where representatives will present results; discuss implementation challenges; and share resources, data, and lessons learned

"We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from medical groups across the country," said Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., President and CEO of AMGA. "We are confident the collaborative will be a cornerstone to helping bring outstanding programs, strategies, and resources to fulfillment."

"Pfizer is committed to helping advance the quality of health care of people worldwide," said Lisa Egbuonu-Davis, M.D., Vice President, US Medical, Pfizer. "Therefore, we are pleased to support the Models of Excellence Collaborative in its endeavor to improve patient care through the development of patient-centered care practices."

Pfizer Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures and markets leading prescription medicines, for humans and animals, and many of the world's best-known consumer brands.

AMGA is an association that represents medical groups, including some of the nation's largest, most prestigious integrated healthcare delivery systems. AMGA advocates for the multispecialty medical group model of healthcare delivery and for the patients served by medical groups through innovation and information sharing, benchmarking, leadership development, and continuous striving to improve patient care. The members of AMGA deliver health care to more than 50 million patients in 42 states, including 15 million capitated lives. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, AMGA is the strategic partner for medical groups providing a comprehensive package of benefits, including political advocacy, educational and networking programs and publications, benchmarking data services, and financial and operations assistance.