Ensuring Responsible Use of Medicines

NEHI research and analysis is aimed at systematic improvement of medication safety, medication effectiveness and patient medication adherence in the U.S. health care system. Prior NEHI research on patient medication adherence is widely cited. Current NEHI projects focus on the convergence of ongoing trends in health care payment reform, population health management, healthcare information technology, chronic care coordination, health care quality improvement and pharmacy practice. We also focus on how this convergence can be accelerated to reduce medication errors, enhance medication safety, improve patient outcomes, eliminate health care waste and achieve appropriate health care cost containment throughout the health care system.

Meet Our Experts

Valerie Fleishman Executive Director

Valerie Fleishman provides the strategic and operational direction for NEHI. As Executive Director, she oversees the institute’s policy research, programs, operations, fundraising and communications. Under her leadership, NEHI's programs seek to improve chronic illness care, promote disease prevention and wellness, and speed the adoption of valuable innovations across the health care system. She has authored numerous reports, articles and briefs on a wide range of health policy issues.

Ms. Fleishman joined NEHI at its founding in 2002. She has over fifteen years’ experience in health care, health policy, technology and innovation. Prior to joining NEHI, Ms. Fleishman was a director in Health and Wellness at Scient Corporation, where she led strategic consulting engagements with leading biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical clients in areas such as telemedicine, disease management, health information technology, clinical trials, and sales and marketing strategies.

Previously, Ms. Fleishman was a manager in Arthur D. Little's Global Strategy Practice. She also worked in product management and brand marketing at Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Products.

Ms. Fleishman received her bachelor of arts, cum laude, from Harvard University and her master of business administration from the Harvard Business School. In 2008, she was honored as one of Boston’s "40 under 40" by the Boston Business Journal.
Tom Hubbard Vice President of Policy Research

Tom Hubbard leads NEHI’s projects on comparative effectiveness research, patient medication adherence, and prevention and wellness initiatives. Mr. Hubbard leverages his policy and technology experience to examine ways the country’s health care system can be transformed, focusing on the promotion of medical innovation and the improvement of quality and efficiency in clinical care.

Mr. Hubbard came to NEHI after seven years at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), where he led industry-focused projects and supervised the annual publication of the MTC Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy. His work has included supervising the I-495 Technology Corridor Partnership, an industry-municipal collaboration on growth, and leading projects on broadband deployment, federal research funding advocacy, and nanotechnology.

Previously, Mr. Hubbard served as Executive Assistant for Economic Affairs to U.S. Senator John Kerry, as Deputy Director of Development for Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, and as Director of Community Development and Planning for the City of Gardner, Massachusetts.

Mr. Hubbard graduated from Harvard College and holds a masters in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Susan Dentzer President and CEO

Susan Dentzer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the NEHI, the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization composed of more than 100 stakeholder organizations from across all key sectors of health and health care. NEHI’s mission is to advance innovations that improve health, enhance the quality of health care, and achieve greater value for the money spent. With offices in Washington, DC, and Boston, Massachusetts, NEHI conducts independent, objective research and thought leadership to accelerate these innovations and bring about changes within health care and public policy.

One of the nation's most respected health and health policy thought leaders and journalists, and a frequent speaker and commentator on television and radio, including NPR, Dentzer previously served as senior policy adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Prior to that, she was editor-in-chief of the journal Health Affairs, and from 1998 to 2008, she served as the on-air Health Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour.

Dentzer is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee, a leading humanitarian organization; a member of the board of directors of Research!America, which works to advance research to improve health; and a member of the board of directors of the Public Health Institute. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Hasting Center, an institution dedicated to bioethics and the public interest. She previously served as a public member of the American Board of Medical Specialties. She serves on multiple advisory boards, including those of the Duke-Margolis Center; the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California-San Francisco; and the March of Dimes public policy advisory group.

A graduate of Dartmouth, Dentzer formerly chaired the Dartmouth Board of Trustees, and is a member of the Board of Advisors of Dartmouth Medical School. She and her husband, Charles Alston, have three grown children.

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Initiatives

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Themes Comparative Effectiveness Research Evidence-based Medicine Health IT

Publication Date: September 22, 2015

Real World Evidence: A New Era for Health Care Innovation

An issue brief on the major challenges and opportunities for Real World Evidence to reach its full potential
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Themes Health Reform Hospital Readmissions Medication Adherence

Publication Date: June 25, 2015

Reducing Hospital Readmissions Through Medication Management and Improved Patient Adherence

Reducing Hospital Readmissions Through Medication Management and Improved Patient Adherence
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Themes Medication Adherence Waste

Publication Date: October 20, 2014

Ready for Pick-Up: Reducing Primary Medication Non-Adherence

An issue brief on key issues in the adoption and utilization of the new pharmacy quality metric on primary medication non-adherence endorsed by the Pharmacy Quality Alliance in November 2013. This white paper reflects information and opinions offered by a working group assembled by the NACDS Foundation, the Pharmacy Quality Alliance, and NEHI in May 2014.
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Themes Comparative Effectiveness Research Evidence-based Medicine Health IT

Publication Date: May 22, 2014

An Evolving Landscape: Comparative Effectiveness Research, Outcomes Research and Health Care Innovation

In this issue brief, NEHI details the dilemma for health care innovators as the volume of data raises more questions than it answers. NEHI says big data offers the promise of big changes in health care, but hurdles remain.

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Themes Healthcare Spending Technology Adoption Telemedicine

Publication Date: November 18, 2013

Emerging Best Practices for Tele-ICU Care Nationally

Continuing its work in Tele-ICU research, NEHI details best practices driving scalability, diversity and competition for telemedicine in intensive care units.
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Themes Hospital Readmissions Medication Adherence

Publication Date: July 29, 2013

Thinking Outside the Pillbox: Six Priorities for Action to Support Improved Patient Medication Adherence

This research brief calls for a national medication adherence agenda centered on six priorities for action for public and private policymakers to improve the way patients take their prescription medicines across the US.
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Themes Accountable Care Payment Reform Telemedicine

Publication Date: April 26, 2013

ACO Innovation Summit Series

An overview of a series of dynamic summits hosted by NEHI for senior leaders for a multi-sector exploration of the potential impact of ACOs on patient access to innovative therapies and technologies. Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, more than 450 Accountable Care Organizations have been established in 49 states. While ACOs are in the spotlight as a means to transform the health care delivery system, many challenges need to be addressed. NEHI has taken the lead by convening a series of dynamic summits for senior leaders from pioneer ACOs, academia, biopharma and medtech for a multi-sector exploration of the potential impact of ACOs on patient access to innovative therapies and technologies.
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Themes Medication Adherence Patient Safety

Publication Date: January 31, 2013

Improving Patient Medication Adherence: Key Issues and Challenges in the Daily Practice of Medicine

This issue brief discusses how evolving models of medication management are key to bringing improved medication adherence, and thus improved patient outcomes and reduced costs, into the daily practice of medicine.
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Themes Hospital Readmissions Medication Adherence Patient Safety

Publication Date: October 19, 2012

Thinking Outside the Pillbox: Improving Medication Adherence and Reducing Readmissions

An issue brief highlighting successful new models of advanced discharge planning and transitional care that have medication management at their core.
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Themes Chronic Disease Health IT Hospital Readmissions

Publication Date: September 25, 2012

ADOPT Toolkit

The website will offer tools in four discreet technology areas: remote patient monitoring (RPM), medication optimization, care transitions, and mobile health. RPM tools are now available online and tools for mobile health technologies will be available in November. NEHI, with its deep portfolio of research indentifying valuable but under used technologies and barriers to their adoption, served in an advisory role on the Toolkit project. In addition, NEHI partnered with Atrius Health in Massachusetts on a study, funded by CTA, of the effectiveness of remote patient monitoring for patients with chronic illnesses. NEHI's Remote Patient Monitoring Project Press Release ADOPT Toolkit Website
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NEHI'S Impact

For Our Members

“NEHI has been a valuable forum to help navigate the changing health care landscape. It has also been a catalyst for informing and influencing the health reform debate and in a number of instances has moved the ultimate decisions to a better place.”
-Josef H. von Rickenbach, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PAREXEL International, Inc.

In the Media

"The New England Healthcare Institute says non- adherence swallows $290 billion a year in additional health costs." -The New York Times

On National Policy

Following the release of the NEHI/MTC study, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted a law making the adoption of CPOE a condition of hospital licensure by 2012.