A new fellowship will allow physicians to study innovative methods to care for high-cost, high-need patients, as the Gehr Family Center for Implementation Science at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and CareMore Health System announced a collaboration to train the next generation of leaders in health care delivery and implementation science.

The collaboration allows for CareMore physicians, through the CareMore-Gehr Fellowship, to receive policy and research training at Keck Medical Center of USC under the mentorship of Gehr Center faculty. The fellows will work on health care delivery innovation projects related to CareMore’s patient base. Sauda Bholat, MD, most recently chief resident in internal medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, has been chosen as the inaugural fellow for the program.

“This fellowship is a novel partnership between a leading academic medical center and an innovative managed care delivery system,” said Michael Hochman, MD, MPH, director of the Gehr Center and assistant professor of clinical medicine. “Examining CareMore’s model, which has successfully treated the highest risk patients in complex health care delivery environments, will surely provide key learnings around how we can provide more value to patients while operating an efficient health system.”

With the ever-changing health care marketplace, it remains crucial to continuously develop and recreate effective health care delivery methods. The CareMore-Gehr Fellowship seeks to help with that.

“Dr. Bholat’s work with the Gehr Center will help us better understand our existing model of care and identify opportunities to change it to more effectively serve patients,” noted Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, CEO of CareMore. “The Gehr Center and the Keck School of Medicine is one of the premier institutions in the emerging fields of health care delivery science and implementation.”

The CareMore and Gehr Center collaboration also provides a model for effective academic partnerships with novel health systems and delivery models.

“Some of the most exciting ideas in health care are generated in clinical practice outside of the academic medical center environment,” said Edward Crandall, PhD, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine at the Keck School. “Academic study of health systems like CareMore can help us understand how these models work to improve care delivery.”

The program also will provide important training for future clinical leaders. Many of the skills that will be emphasized in the CareMore-Gehr Fellowship program are imperative for effectively improving the quality and efficiency of care delivery, as well as the health of populations.

The Fellowship will be co-led by Hochman and Anil Hanuman, DO, regional chief medical officer at CareMore.

by Mary Dacuma