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The ACG® System has been used in commercial and research settings worldwide, longer and more extensively than any other system on the market today. The software component is tried and true, continuously undergoing improvements and modifications in response to user needs.
The ACG System continues to evolve through research and development conducted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a world renowned institution. Over the past 30 years, the ACG System has been maintained and supported by dedicated Johns Hopkins faculty and staff in medicine, biostatistics, and health economics. Johns Hopkins University also offers support services by academic professionals to ensure appropriate implementation of the ACG System as well as accurate interpretation of the results.
The ACG System benefits from extensive global validation and testing. The ACG System Bibliography contains close to 1,000 published articles and reports from around the globe demonstrating its robustness in varying health care system contexts.
The ACG System facilitates the identification of multi-morbid patients with complex needs to enable timely care interventions. Available to all ACG System users, Guided Care® is a program designed to help primary care practices meet the complex needs of patients with multiple chronic conditions, where case mix is combined to support patient management.
Characterized by excellence in both research and practice, The ACG System Team has been creating risk measurement and case mix categorization methodology for more than 30 years, continuously refining and updating the system. Our team has virtually “written the book” on risk adjustment through numerous contributions in the published literature.
The Johns Hopkins ACG System White Paper– Describing the key applications and unique benefits.
Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Professor Barbara Starfield, M.D., M.P.H., was recognized world-wide as an expert in primary care, case mix methodologies, and promotion of equity in health. One of her profound insights was that systems of care organized around individual diseases were not optimally beneficial to patients, especially those who are chronically ill. Her defining work with patterns of morbidity forms the basis of the ACG System, which she co-developed.
Research by Prof. Starfield and her colleagues in the early 1980s showed that children using the most health care resources were not those affected by single chronic illnesses, but rather they had multiple, seemingly unrelated conditions. Prof. Starfield was able to extend these findings to all ages of patients and ultimately demonstrate that the clustering of morbidity is a better predictor of health services resource use than the presence of specific diseases.
Focusing on the patterns of morbidity forms the basis of the current ACG System and remains the fundamental concept that differentiates the ACG System from other case mix adjustment methodologies.
When Prof. Starfield passed away in 2011, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health established the Barbara Starfield Scholarship Fund to support doctoral students who pursue study and research that continue Dr. Starfield’s primary areas of focus. In continuing to honor her legacy, the ACG System Team instituted The Starfield Award.
Johns Hopkins University was founded on the principle that by pursuing big ideas and sharing what we learn, we make the world a better place. For more than 140 years, the university hasn’t strayed from that vision.
More than 21,000 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled in the university’s nine schools.
For 36 years in a row, the university has put more money into research than any other U.S. academic institution.
36 Hopkins researchers past and present have earned Nobel Prizes.
The university reaches into nearly every corner of the globe, conducting research, training, and related activities in more than 150 countries.
Click on a flag below for information on collaborators available in that area.
What the media is saying about us, and other important announcements the ACG System Team wants to share with you.
Lizelle Steenkamp and Sharon Naidoo received this award on behalf of Discovery Limited in South Africa in recognition of their use of the Johns Hopkins ACG System in their project entitled “Improving Patient Coordination Through Effective Primary Care Management”. Their work was presented at the 2016 ACG System International Conference in San Diego.
Discovery Limited used the Johns Hopkins ACG System to investigate the impact of care coordination on health care costs and patient health outcomes. By modifying the ACG System coordination risk score to better suit the South African population and patterns of care, Discovery Limited was able to measure the impact of primary care provider allocation. Results demonstrated that assigning a primary care doctor to a patient for care coordination improved care coordination as measured by decreased number of specialist visits and decreased number of hospital admissions and readmissions. Improvements were also seen in process measures recorded within diabetes and healthy heart management.
“We are immensely honored to receive this award in recognition of a project using the ACG System to measure the impact of primary care provider allocation,” said Dr. Jonathan Broomberg, CEO of Discovery Health. “For Discovery it is critical that we continue to maximize value for patients. Projects such as these make excellent use of tools such as the ACG System and support our efforts to move towards a patient-centered health care system, which aims to achieve the best patient outcomes at the lowest possible cost,” Broomberg continued.
Discovery Limited’s study also showed that the specialty of the doctor providing the majority of care is not as important as previously thought. Instead, the strength of the relationship between the patient and the provider has a greater influence on successful care coordination. Patients with strong relationships with their primary care providers had better utilization experiences than those with weak relationships. This is independent of insurance benefit design as patients with strong relationships with general practitioners on both unrestricted and restricted plans experienced lower levels of hospital utilization. They also experienced lower care coordination issues.
“Results from this project demonstrated that coordinated care, by assigning a primary care doctor to a patient, lowered overall health care costs and improved patient outcomes,” confirmed Broomberg. Commenting on their work in coordinated care, he said, “Discovery Health places great emphasis on coordination of patient care and the subsequent evidence of improved care and costs. Measured by a decreased number of specialist visits and hospital admissions and readmissions, this project also showed that our patient-care strategy using the Discovery Health Premier Practice model is effective,” he added.
The findings support the Discovery Premier Practice model that was introduced in 2015 and provides an approach that encourages care coordination within the health care system namely the Discovery Premier Network. This network consists of general practitioners who agree to follow evidence based pathways for the management of patients with the following conditions: diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia or coronary artery disease. Enrolled doctors are incentivized to manage their patients’ care. The Premier Network is unique in that it is coupled with Discovery’s wellness program, Vitality. Vitality members are incentivized to reach particular health goals.
“Given Professor Starfield’s conviction of the importance of coordinated care as well as her input during the creation of the ACG System Coordination Markers, it is truly fitting that the work of this year’s Starfield Award winner focusses on these aspects,” said Karen Kinder PhD, MBA; Executive Director, ACG System
To access a summary presentation highlighting their award-winning work, click here.
The Starfield Award honors the work and legacy of Dr. Barbara Starfield, co-developer of the Johns Hopkins ACG System. We are honored to receive numerous applications from leaders in health care research from across the globe. The award recognizes work focusing on three major aspects of Barbara Starfield’s work; addressing multi-morbidity in patients and populations, reducing disparities in the delivery of primary health care, and improving population health. The ACG System Team is grateful to DST for sponsoring this award. It is awarded biennially and presented at the ACG International User Conference.
Lourens Walters, Cristina Mannie, and Stefan Strydom of Medscheme in South Africa received the 2014 Starfield Award in recognition of their use of the ACG System in their project titled: “A comprehensive care management programme focused on emerging and high risk individuals”.
They presented their work at the 2014 ACG System International Conference in Seattle, WA.
The aim of Medscheme’s research was to identify individuals within lower morbidity groups who were most likely to incur increasing health care costs in the future but are still amenable to care management intervention programs. What differentiated their approach from other methods of identifying patients for care management programs was their recognition that when tracking costs over future time periods for individuals in the lower Resource Utilization Bands (RUBs), the average health care expenditure for these individuals increases dramatically even though their current costs are relatively lower than those associated with higher RUBs.
A predictive model utilizing the ACG System was developed to predict the likelihood of moving to a higher RUB in the future. This new Emerging Risk Model complements their existing care management approach of focusing on high risk individuals.
By intervening on high risk individuals identified by applying their existing High Risk Predictive Model which also utilizes the ACG System, their randomized controlled study observed financial savings and a reduction in utilization of hospital services. Individuals identified by the Emerging Risk Model are likely to benefit from similar interventions due to a similar disease profile. A randomized controlled study is planned to measure intervention outcomes.
The Starfield Award honors the work and legacy of Dr. Barbara Starfield, co-developer of the Johns Hopkins ACG System. This year we were honored to receive numerous applications from leaders in health care research from across the globe. The award recognizes work focusing on three major aspects of Barbara Starfield’s work; addressing multi-morbidity in patients and populations, reducing disparities in the delivery of primary health care, and improving population health. The ACG System Team is grateful to DST for sponsoring this award. It is awarded biennially and presented at the ACG International User Conference.
Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Professor Barbara Starfield, M.D., M.P.H., was recognized world-wide as an expert in primary care, case mix methodologies, and promotion of equity in health. Her defining work with patterns of morbidity forms the basis of the ACG System, which she co-developed.
When Prof. Starfield passed away in 2011, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health established the Barbara Starfield Scholarship Fund to support doctoral students who pursue study and research that continue Dr. Starfield’s primary areas of focus. In continuing to honor her legacy, the ACG System Team instituted The Starfield Award.
Download the Application for the Starfield Award.
Learn about sponsoring the Starfield Award.
Read more about Dr. Starfield’s life and career.
View Dr. Starfield’s Wikipedia page.
Dr. Starfield and her contributions continue to be discussed by public health professionals around the globe. As a sponsor, you keep her body of work vibrant –and help the next generation of students to make exciting advances.
Any individual or organization who wishes to honor Prof. Starfield’s work through sponsorship of the Starfield Award and the Barbara Starfield Scholarship Fund will be recognized in a variety of ways. These include highlighted mention in collateral materials, on websites, and in media. Additionally, priority preference for conferences will be offered.
For further Information on the Starfield Award and Sponsorship: please e-mail the ACG System Team at: info@HopkinsACG.org.
Driven by our vision – Creating a World of Sustainable Healthcare – Medscheme has consistently delivered innovative medical aid administration and health risk management solutions for over four decades. We form close partnerships with our clients who include leading medical aids and large corporate companies in South Africa, Africa and internationally.
Today, Medscheme is South Africa’s largest health risk management services provider and second largest medical aid administrator. We reach over three million people through our network of branches conveniently located throughout South Africa, as well as Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mauritius.
We have also acquired a specialist healthcare and insurance business in Mauritius that allows us to offer highly competitive business process outsourcing solutions to both local and international clients.
Our proven combination of client-centricity and expertise is founded on excellence in corporate governance and world-class information technology. These attributes position Medscheme as the ideal business partner for corporate clients and medical aids who seek to offer quality health risk management and affordable health insurance to their members and employees.
For more information about the ACG System/Medscheme collaboration, please contact:
Cristina Mannie
cristinam@medscheme.co.za
Stefan Strydom
stefans2@medscheme.co.za
Iasist is an added-value, professional service company based in Spain and Portugal which offers health care providers, payers and the health industry the clinical and economic information required to improve quality and efficiency in their organizations and the services provided to their customers. To do that, Iasist combines knowledge from a highly-specialized team of people and the largest clinical databases, both nationally and in Europe.
Iasist is the leading company in Spain and Portugal providing benchmarking for decision support to health institutions working as well in some Latin American countries.
For Iasist, the ACG System offers an innovative perspective in population health measurement, as it is based on co-morbodity levels. The collaboration between the ACG System and Iasist thus evolved in order to allow Iasist to offer its customers this groundbreaking approach to Patient Classification Systems.
For more information about the ACG System/Iasist collaboration, please contact:
Carles Illa
Iasist
Rambla de Catalunya, 2-4, 60
08007 Barcelona
Spain
Phone: 34-933-014-061
aarias@iasist.com
www.iasist.com
Iasist is an added-value, professional service company based in Spain and Portugal which offers health care providers, payers and the health industry the clinical and economic information required to improve quality and efficiency in their organizations and the services provided to their customers. To do that, Iasist combines knowledge from a highly-specialized team of people and the largest clinical databases, both nationally and in Europe.
Iasist is the leading company in Spain and Portugal providing benchmarking for decision support to health institutions working as well in some Latin American countries.
For Iasist, the ACG System offers an innovative perspective in population health measurement, as it is based on co-morbodity levels. The collaboration between the ACG System and Iasist thus evolved in order to allow Iasist to offer its customers this groundbreaking approach to Patient Classification Systems.
For more information about the ACG System/Iasist collaboration, please contact:
Carles Illa
Iasist
Rambla de Catalunya, 2-4, 60
08007 Barcelona
Spain
Phone: 34-933-014-061
aarias@iasist.com
www.iasist.com
Iasist is an added-value, professional service company based in Spain and Portugal which offers health care providers, payers and the health industry the clinical and economic information required to improve quality and efficiency in their organizations and the services provided to their customers. To do that, Iasist combines knowledge from a highly-specialized team of people and the largest clinical databases, both nationally and in Europe.
Iasist is the leading company in Spain and Portugal providing benchmarking for decision support to health institutions working as well in some Latin American countries.
For Iasist, the ACG System offers an innovative perspective in population health measurement, as it is based on co-morbodity levels. The collaboration between the ACG System and Iasist thus evolved in order to allow Iasist to offer its customers this groundbreaking approach to Patient Classification Systems.
For more information about the ACG System/Iasist collaboration, please contact:
Carles Illa
Iasist
Rambla de Catalunya, 2-4, 60
08007 Barcelona
Spain
Phone: 34-933-014-061
aarias@iasist.com
www.iasist.com
Lohmann & Birkner Health Care Consulting GmbH is a German company which offers software development and consultation services to form synergies that interconnect health care-related areas concerning claims, case and care management. They build interfaces among hospitals, health insurance companies, sickness funds, and industry, as well as medical associations and societies. Their interdisciplinary team combines theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience to provide customers with high-quality tools that meet their needs.
Quality and process management is part of the Lohmann & Birkner service portfolio, as well as the development of conceptual designs for databases and medical software for hospitals and health insurance companies. They have a particular focus on the implementation of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), and their goal is to support clinics and health insurance companies by delivering effective solutions.
For more information about the ACG System/Lohman & Birkner collaboration, please contact:
Dr. Ruediger Lohmann
Lohmann & Birkner
Alt-Reinickendorf 25
13407 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49-30-9985100
lohmann@lohmann-birkner.de
www.lohmann-birkner.de
Ensolution is a Sweden-based management consulting firm with extensive experience in the health care industry. After recognizing the increasing demand for accurate health care finance and resource monitoring, while safeguarding populations’ needs and freedom of choice, Ensolution turned to the ACG System for an answer. Together, they offer a solution for the effective analysis of health care processes, which allows for better resource allocation, cost control and disease management.
Andreas Johansson
Ensolution
Slottsmollans foretagscenter
SE-302 32 Halmstad
Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)709-90 00 30
andreas.johansson@ensolution.se
www.ensolution.se
Iasist is an added-value, professional service company based in Spain and Portugal which offers health care providers, payers and the health industry the clinical and economic information required to improve quality and efficiency in their organizations and the services provided to their customers. To do that, Iasist combines knowledge from a highly-specialized team of people and the largest clinical databases, both nationally and in Europe.
Iasist is the leading company in Spain and Portugal providing benchmarking for decision support to health institutions working as well in some Latin American countries.
For Iasist, the ACG System offers an innovative perspective in population health measurement, as it is based on co-morbodity levels. The collaboration between the ACG System and Iasist thus evolved in order to allow Iasist to offer its customers this groundbreaking approach to Patient Classification Systems.
For more information about the ACG System/Iasist collaboration, please contact:
Carles Illa
Iasist
Rambla de Catalunya, 2-4, 60
08007 Barcelona
Spain
Phone: 34-933-014-061
aarias@iasist.com
www.iasist.com
Sollis has been delivering business intelligence and health care analytics solutions to the UK National Health Service (NHS) since 1994.
We have a long and established relationship with the Johns Hopkins University where we have successfully integrated the ACG® System into our health care business intelligence software – Clarity Patients.
We believe that our collaboration with the world renowned Johns Hopkins University has resulted in one of the most advanced clinically based commissioning decision support systems available to the UK health care system.
Sollis Clarity Patients is the largest implementation of the Johns Hopkins ACG System in the UK.
It currently supports 30 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and over 900 GP Practices.
In 2013, Sollis collaborated with the ACG System Team and NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit to recalibrate the predictive models in Version 10i of the ACG System to better reflect the NHS context. This enables the ACG System to more accurately capture the morbidity patterns within the NHS as well as the factors that contribute to increased risk within the local population. NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit and Sollis agreed to make this enhancement available free of charge to other non-Sollis NHS implementations.
We continue to further develop Clarity Patients while integrating the ACG System to support service transformation and outcomes based commissioning for the UK NHS. Clarity is a key component of any population health management strategy and can help accountable care organisations transition from volume-based to value-based healthcare. Download our white paper here.
If you place the patient at the heart of all you do; if you want to work with people who will enable the systems, the data and the insights to help you deliver care appropriately and efficiently then we should be talking. We clearly share the same values. www.sollis.co.uk
If you are located in the United States, you may obtain a commercial license to the ACG System by contacting DST Health Solutions.
DST Health Solutions
866-287-9243
inforequests@dsthealthsolutions.com
Amy Salls, Director of Population Health Strategy at DST Health Solutions, provides a summary on the commercialization process and the various populations, applications, and user needs that the ACG System helps in the United States.