NEWS May 8, 2019

Future of Pediatrics 2019: Twenty Years of Continuing Medical Education for Practicing Pediatricians

Summary

At the 20^th annual Future of Pediatrics meeting, Dr. Veronica Gunn will serve as the keynote speaker, with remarks focused on innovation and clinical integration.

The Children’s National Health Network (CNHN) – now part of the Pediatric Health Network – has sponsored its Future of Pediatrics CME Program annually each June since 1999. The program includes two full-days of CME presentations targeted at improving the care provided by practicing pediatricians. This year’s Future of Pediatrics 2019 CME program will be held on Wednesday & Thursday, June 19-20, 2019 at the Marriott North Bethesda Conference Center. Our annual “meet & greet” reception and Future of Pediatrics dinner meeting/keynote will be Wednesday, June 19, 2019 from 5:00-8:00 pm.

In her keynote address, Dr. Veronica Gunn will illustrate how pediatricians – in collaboration with patients, families and communities – can implement quality improvement efforts that meaningfully improve child health; and, how providers and health systems can collaborate with payers to innovate models of care that incentivize improved health outcomes. Key questions she will explore include:

QUALITY: What does it mean to implement quality improvement and value-based care at the PCP level on a daily basis? How do you do that well when you are seeing patients and managing a busy practice?
INNOVATION: How do clinicians think differently about rearranging their system, working toward collaboration, and developing resources (in the system and in the community)?
NETWORK OPPORTUNITIES: What are properties of clinically integrated network that allow creativity in designing new models of care?
INTEGRATION: The need for an integrated approach to manage populations, measure improvement, and do value-based contracting

Throughout her career, Dr. Veronica Gunn has worked to improve health for children and families. Her more than twenty years’ experience in clinical practice, research, health care administration and policy roles at the state and national levels give Dr. Gunn a unique perspective on systems-based approaches to sustainably improve health. She co-founded one of the first pediatric health innovation programs in the nation, supporting the development and implementation of novel models of care delivery and providing consultation to other health systems on pediatric health management.

Prior to that, Dr. Gunn served as the Chief Medical Officer for the Tennessee Department of Health, where she developed and implemented legislative and administrative policies to improve the health of Tennesseans. Dr. Gunn is frequently invited to speak at industry, clinical and policy conferences internationally on strategic approaches to improve child health. Dr. Gunn is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is a board-certified pediatrician.