On July 23 HRET honored David Satcher, MD, PhD as the 2009 recipient of HRET's TRUST Award. Dr. Satcher is director of the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute and the Poussaint-Satcher-Cosby Chair in Mental Health at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Satcher also served as the 16th surgeon general of the United States. As surgeon general, Satcher addressed issues that had not previously garnered national attention, including mental health, sexual health, obesity, as well as racial and ethnic disparities in access and quality of care. His groundbreaking reports were often both controversial and highly respected. The TRUST Award, established in 2003, recognizes individuals who have exhibited visionary leadership in the health care field and who symbolize HRET's commitment and desire to build continued trust within health care organizations and with community partners. To read more about the award, visit http://www.hret.org/.

The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) has appointed HRET president Maulik Joshi, DrPH, as the new Editor in Chief of its official journal, the Journal for Healthcare Quality (JHQ). Reaching more than 5,000 health professionals, faculty, and students, the journal provides a professional forum that continuously advances health care quality practice in diverse and changing environments. Dr. Joshi officially assumed the position of Editor in Chief of JHQ on August 1, 2009. "Dr. Joshi's bio makes clear his passion for and commitment to quality and patient safety," says NAHQ executive director Stacy Sochacki. "With expertise in both quality and research, Dr. Joshi will help lead us into our journal's next phase of development and evolution." NAHQ is a health care quality organization that promotes knowledge sharing in the health care field. Founded in 1976, NAHQ currently has more than 5,000 professional members and 100 institutional members who drive the delivery of vital data for effective decision making in health care systems by combining technology with their unique expertise in quality management. To read more about JHQ visit http://www.nahq.org/journal.

Nicole Lurie, MD, former HSR senior associate editor, was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Department of Health and Human Services' assistant secretary for preparedness and response. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Lurie's knowledge and expertise would be "essential" to the department as it continues "to develop and implement an action plan for a coordinated national response to the H1N1 virus." Dr. Lurie most recently served as director of the RAND Corporation's Center for Population Health and Health Disparities and co-director of its Center for Domestic and International Health Security. From 1998-2001, she served as HHS principal deputy assistant secretary of health.

Douglas Conrad, PhD, of the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and co-director of HRET's Center for Health Management Research (CHMR), is the 2009 recipient of the Filerman Prize for Innovation in Healthcare Management Education. The Filerman Prize was established in 1996 by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) in honor of Gary L. Filerman, PhD, the first president of AUPHA. The prize recognizes individuals from AUPHA member programs who have made outstanding contributions to the field of health administration education, exhibited leadership in the field, and enriched their institutions, their students, and health administration education through their work. The Prize was awarded at the 2009 AUPHA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Health Services Research journal and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) have extended the deadline for papers on payment reform to September 30. The journal is requesting papers for a special theme issue on payment reform. As the country struggles to resolve an impending crisis of rising costs, decreasing access, and uncertain quality in health care, there is widespread agreement that changes in the payment system must be part of the solution. Public and private payers have been experimenting with novel payment strategies for several years, but so far little comparable evidence has been published about the intended and unintended consequences of different approaches. With the theme issue, HSR and AHRQ seek to produce the best science possible to inform future payment initiatives. For more on the call for papers, including the types of manuscripts eligible for submission, visit the journal online.

HRET's 2009 Trust awardee David Satcher, MD, PhD was featured in the July issue of H&HN. In his OutBox column, "Diverse and Dynamic Leaders," Satcher wrote, "To effect change, health care leaders must prioritize policy issues, develop effective collaborations, and increase diversity within our own ranks." Dr. Satcher was also featured in the June 30 edition of H&HN Weekly in "A New Era for Health Reform," an interview with HRET president Maulik Joshi, DrPH. Dr. Satcher discussed health reform, health care disparities, and the role of policy in health care, saying: "People who aspire to help us move forward, in the health of people in this country and the health system, need to understand policy-to begin early to study health policy, how policy gets made in this country, and what it takes to change policy." In the interview, Dr. Satcher also addressed the need for applying scientific evidence in policy change and the need to bridge the gap between health services research and community-based intervention research.

This month HRET is releasing the first of a series of case studies on successes and lessons learned by innovative hospitals and health systems. The Informing Practice Study Series focuses on case studies that present compelling data that describe improvement. The first brief in the series tells the story of work done at Duke University Health System to improve their culture of safety. Duke focused on two objectives: (1) strengthening communication and teamwork within and between care teams; and (2) creating a culture of safety that is less punitive and more just, accountable, and patient-centered. Learn more about Duke's journey at http://www.hret.org/hret/publications/studyseries/content/DUHS.pdf.

HSR journal's most-downloaded articles of 2008 and 2009 are available for free at http://www.hsr.org/ from now through September 2009. The most-downloaded articles of 2009 (to date) are:

• A Systematic Review of Health Care Efficiency Measures
  Volume 44, Issue 3
  Peter S. Hussey, Han de Vries, John Romley, Margaret C. Wang, Susan S. Chen, Paul G. Shekelle, and Elizabeth A. McGlynn
• Effect of Evidence-Based Acute Pain Management Practices on Inpatient Costs
  Volume 44, Issue 1
  John M. Brooks, Marita G. Titler, Gail Ardery, and Keela Herr
• Qualitative Data Analysis for Health Services Research: Developing Taxonomy, Themes, and Theory
  Volume 42, Issue 4
  Elizabeth H. Bradley, Leslie A. Curry, and Kelly J. Devers

• International Nurse Recruitment in India
  Volume 42, Issue 3p2
  Binod Khadria
• Nurses on the Move: A Global Overview
  Volume 42, Issue 3p2
  Mireille Kingma
• Comparing United States versus International Medical School Graduate Physicians Who Serve African- American and White Elderly
  Volume 41, Issue 6
  Daniel L. Howard, Carol D. Bunch, Wilberforce O. Mundia, Thomas R. Konrad, Lloyd J. Edwards, M. Ahinee Amamoo, and Yhenneko Jallah

Hospital leaders looking for field-tested practices, proven strategies, tools, and education to support their ongoing efforts to improve outcomes and the patient experience in their hospital have a new resource from the American Hospital Association (AHA). Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence (HPOE) is the AHA's new strategic platform that provides field-tested practices, tools, education, and other networking resources to accelerate performance improvement in the nation's hospitals. HPOE's fundamental principles support the Institute of Medicine's Six Aims for Improvement: safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and patient-centeredness. As the AHA's field leadership strategy for health reform, HPOE is about building hospital capacity to internally improve and bring even more value to patients and communities. As this new platform is developed, an extensive set of resources, including case studies, tools and applied methods, education programs, and networking opportunities, will be made available. For more information, visit http://www.hpoe.org/ or contact the AHA at hpoe@aha.org.