Last year's inaugural 3"Ps" Forum in Atlanta launched a new dialogue among purchasers/employers, health plans, and medical providers -- the 3Ps.  It was enthusiastically received, with the suggestion that the next such event include the 4th "P" -- the patient (also known as the employee and plan member!).  This year's event, therefore, became the 4"Ps" , moved to Orlando, and doubled in size while maintaining its nature as more of a dialogue than a conference.  It also added a special Disease Management Summit to focus on the roles of the "Ps" in making disease management work as a vital value-add to improve the health care system and the health of the population.

Day One -- April 15th -- the morning was organized around the four Centers of Inquiry that launched IHPM's original research phase.  Joe Leutzinger, now President of IHPM's Academy and formerly Director of Wellness at award-winning Union Pacific Railroad, talked about the "health management" mission of keeping more of the employee population healthier to avoid both medical costs and productivity losses.  He was followed by Dr. Phil Hagen, Medical Director at Mayo Clinic Health Management Resources, who spoke to the changing relationship between patients and physicians that is engaging individuals more in the management of their own medical care as well as their health.

Dr. Bill Bunn, indefatigable champion of HPM and a leading walker-of-the-talk as Vice President for Health, Safety, and Productivity at International Truck & Engine, told the story of building an integrated heath and productivity management model from traditional workplace safety and occupational medicine beginnings.  Then Judd Allen, President of the Human Resources Institute, added the wraparound piece  of healthy corporate cultures -- how they affect individual health and performance, and how they can be made healthier.

These presenters were joined by IHPM advisers Jack Bastable from CBIZ and Dr. Spencer Borden, founder and President of Integrity Consulting, for a discussion on integrating these "domains" into the HPM model -- with lively engagement of the attendees.

The afternoon -- organized around the "Ps" themselves -- began with Wendi Bailey, Manager for Building Better Health at Home Depot, describing their top-down commitment -- from CEO Bob Nardelli -- to the health of their employees as an investment in their performance -- an especially important message about the value of human capital coming from a leading employer in the normally high-turnover retail industry!  Dr. James Cowan from Aetna -- winner of IHPM's special President's Award at last fall's conference -- spoke to a health plan's role in bringing greater value to its employer customers by helping improve the health and functionality of their employees. 

Dr. Richard Tucker, Associate Director of the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center in central Washington State, returned from last year's forum to expand on the growing efforts of a regional medical group -- now working with a fitness center -- to bring programs that improve health and reduce costs directly to employers such as the local bus company -- a model for making HPM work in non-metropolitan America.  And the 4th "P" appeared in the person of Steve Wood, Executive Director of J.D. Power and Associates Healthcare Division, who shared "consumer" findings from hospital patients and health plan members concerning what really mattered to them in their encounters with the "system." (IHPM will be working with JDPA to develop a Work/Life Functionality Index for next year's Forum.)

Dr. Spencer Borden returned with another IHPM adviser, Sue Willette from Mercer Human Resource Consulting, to engage the presenters and attendees in further discussion of how the 3Ps can produce better results for that 4th "P" -- the patient/employee/plan member.

Day Two -- The first-time Disease Management Summit began with perspectives from the purchaser, practicing physician, hospital medical director, and practicing nurse.  Dr. Jack Mahoney, Medical Director at Pitney-Bowes, described his innovative and nationally recognized strategies for getting the greatest value from health and disease management to employees -- to improve their health and performance.  Dr. John Gastright entertained as well as informed the audience by pointing out how practicing physicians have largely been left out of the disease management enterprise. -- and the value to be gained from engaging them.  The hospital viewpoint was presented by Dr. Paul Garrett from Florida Hospital Healthcare System,  while Sheryl Riley from McKesson Health Solutions delivered a high-energy presentation on the value to be added to disease management by the front-line workers "in the trenches" -- nurses!

These presentations were followed by four focused disease management breakout sessions:

Managing the Multiple Elements of Metabolic Syndrome, sponsored by Abbott Laboratories, presented by Dr. Ken Fujioka from Scripps Clinic;

Pain as a Public Health Issue, sponsored by Purdue and presented by Dr. Jeremy Nobel from Harvard Medical School;

Economics of Healthcare: New Common Sense Approach Focusing on Cardiovascular Disease, sponsored by Wyeth, presented by Catherine Carroll from University of Missouri Kansas City;

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Emerging Workplace Issue, sponsored by Boehringer-Ingelheim and Pfizer, presented by Dr. Pamella Thomas from Lockheed Martin, Ron Goetzel from the MEDSTAT Group and Dr. David Tinkelmann from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

The closing panel after lunch allowed disease management providers Dr. Jan Berger, Sr. VP, Clinical Quality & Support CMO for Caremark, Rhonda Willingham, Vice President of Sales for CorSolutions, Roger Reed, BSN, RN and Executive VP for Gordian Health Solutions, and Dr. Thomas Morrow, VP and Medical Director for  Matria Healthcare, -- as well as a health plan, Blue Cross of Georgia represented by Dr. Ron Hunt, Medical Director of Medical Management -- to respond to the morning presenters and engage with attendees.

At the end of the day an audience participant asked the panel to comment on the subject of National Health Insurance.   While it was not relevant to the discussion - i.e., Disease Management - it raised sufficient concern that it will be addressed  in a special issue of the eNews forthcoming next week.

Evaluations from attendees confirmed the unique value of the 4Ps event; next year's date and location will be announced in the near future.