The University of Chicago Description

The University of Chicago Medicine, dating to 1927, is a not-for-profit academic healthcare system owned by the University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, with hospitals and dozens of outpatient clinics throughout Chicago and its suburbs. The primary medical center is on the campus of the University of Chicago, a top national university in US News and World Report’s rankings. Other top ranked schools on campus with important links to healthcare delivery science include the Harris School of Public Policy, the Law School, the School of Social Service Administration, and the Booth School of Business, among others.

A new brand, the University of Chicago Medicine, was introduced in 2012 with the opening of its new state-of-the-art hospital. The Center for Care and Discovery brings together the best minds in research and clinical care aided by the latest in technology and located adjacent to the Level I Trauma Center, the outpatient Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine, the Comer Children’s Hospital, and the Pritzker School of Medicine – the top medical school in Illinois and one of the top in the nation. UChicago Medicine also includes Ingalls Memorial, a community hospital in the Southwestern suburbs of Chicago.

UChicago Medicine has a robust history of providing services to the Chicago community, particularly the South Side of Chicago. For fiscal year 2018, UChicago Medicine invested more than $477 million in community benefits. One of the most well-known of these investments is the Urban Health Initiative, previously led by Michelle Obama and serving as a locus for community engagement in the healthcare services provided by UChicago Medicine.

Particularly relevant for AcademyHealth’s Delivery System Science Fellowship, the University of Chicago is home to many unique Institutes and Centers offering significant opportunities for collaboration in the field of healthcare delivery science, including the Institute for Translational Medicine, the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, the Center for Health and the Social Sciences, the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation (HDSI). HDSI was established by UChicago Medicine in 2016 to catalyze efforts to apply rigorous science to address local challenges in healthcare delivery, with the goal of strengthening the quality, safety, value and experience of healthcare locally, and spreading these real-world innovations to other healthcare organizations nationally. HDSI has become a center for collaboration between scientists and executive leaders across UChicago Medicine, providing a mechanism through which UChicago Medicine can support scientists in local healthcare delivery redesign. HDSI provides research funding, training, logistical support for embedded research, and opportunities for networking and impact. The AcademyHealth Delivery System Science Fellowship is supported and administered by HDSI.

In the last few years alone, UChicago Medicine has also attracted resources and recognition of particular relevance to those interested in healthcare delivery science. Representative achievements include: 1) selection by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to be one of eight Pathway Innovators in ACGME’s Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) program, 2) membership in the High Value Practice Academic Alliance, 3) selection as one of thirteen members of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s ACTION III Network, 4) one of 41 hospitals in 2019 to receive 15 sequential A grades since Leapfrog began its semi-annual ratings in 2012, 5) Magnet Recognition in 2018, 6) Most Wired Recognition by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) in 2018, and 7) selection in 2019 to be a member of the US Cochrane Network.

Opportunities available to those pursuing an AcademyHealth Delivery System Science Fellowship at UChicago Medicine include: 1) collaboration with and mentorship from world-class healthcare delivery scientists and C-suite executive leaders, including but not limited to the Chief Quality and Innovation Officer, Chief Clinical Transformation Officer, Chief Medical Information Officers and Chief Medical Officer for the Clinical Learning Environment, 2) collaboration with robust teams in quality performance improvement, operational performance improvement, infection control, clinical analytics, data science, medical informatics, patient experience and clinical innovation, 3) the potential to advance initiatives across a broad array of healthcare delivery science domains, including quality improvement, patient safety, high value care, digital health, clinical analytics, population health, and pharmacy and supply chain management, and 4) availability of institutional resources such as an enterprise-wide data warehouse, the Epic electronic health record (EHR) across all clinical practice sites, an EHR based clinical pathways program, and robust institutional quality dashboards and individual provider scorecards.

As the third largest city in the US, Chicago has much to offer as well, from one of the most exciting food, drink, arts and entertainment scenes in the world, to the largest airport in the US, and home to innumerable institutions advancing the science of healthcare delivery, including the Google Midwest headquarters, NORC at the University of Chicago, and MATTER, one of the few innovation incubators and accelerators in the US to exclusively focus on healthcare.

Thank you for considering UChicago Medicine as a potential site for your Fellowship experience. We hope to be able to discuss these opportunities and more with you as the application process proceeds.

Sharon Markman, MHA
Administrative Director, Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation (HDSI)
University of Chicago Medicine
mailto:sharon.markman@uchospitals.edu

Craig Umscheid, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine
Chief Quality and Innovation Officer and Vice President for Healthcare Delivery Science
Director, Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation (HDSI)
University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences
craigumscheid@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu