A Valuable Perspective.

Laura Nicholson, M.D. 

Resident in Internal Medicine/Primary Care

Brigham and Women's Hospital 

PGY 3

06/09/2021

The Value-Based Healthcare Delivery course was a valuable educational experience and provided a unique opportunity to engage in discussions of healthcare payment and policy during residency. After three years of residency focused on learning clinical skills, this course offered an important systems-perspective that will inform how I think about the systems I deliver clinical care in the future. One of the most unique aspects of the course was the chance to engage with residents from different programs and levels of training. 

As an internal medicine resident, I do not often enter discussions with surgeons, emergency medicine, or radiology residents around these type of topics, and I found this to be a great learning opportunity. The case-based discussions allowed for a deep engagement with the various principles we discussed; they offered insights into payment systems and hospital programs that are different from those I have encountered as a trainee. The case discussion related to strategies hospitals have taken to address social determinants of health at both the individual and population level were especially informative. As an internal medicine resident going into primary care and hospitalist medicine, I am eager to apply these principles and ideas from this course to my future career as a generalist.