The Power of Partnerships

Robert C. Groom

The challenging economic climate has had an extraordinary effect on hospitals and healthcare providers. The silver lining of this economic storm cloud has been the great gains realized by mergers, alliances and partnerships. Over the past decade, an increasing number of physician group practices joined hospitals and numerous hospitals became aligned as large health systems. The consolidation of resources reduces waste and redundant effort resulting in improved efficiency. On another level, there are quality collaboratives like the Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group that seek to improve by sharing information about outcomes and best practices. More recently a voluntary “collaborative of collaboratives” has formed, called the National Cardiac Surgery Quality Improvement Network (IMPROVE) (1). The IMPROVE Network members are: The Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program, Maritime Cardiovascular Quality Initiative, Michigan Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons, Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group, and Providence Health & Services Cardiovascular Disease Study Group. IMPROVE’s mission is “to improve the value of cardiovascular surgical care by developing, sharing best practice knowledge, coordinating, undertaking, evaluating and disseminating quality improvement projects across our member organizations.” When knowledge and other resources are shared, everybody wins, especially the patients.

I am pleased to announce a partnership between the Australian and New Zealand College of Perfusion (ANZCP) and the American Society of ExtraCorporeal Technology. The Journal of ExtraCorporeal Technology is now the “Official Journal” of the ANZCP. This means that the ANZCP members will have electronic access to the Journal, including all archived volumes going back to 1974. This partnership will result in a broader readership for the Journal and perhaps an increase in submissions to the Journal. It is good for the ANZCP in that it helps the college to fulfill their mission of supporting members by offering them the tangible benefit of subscription to the Journal of ExtraCorporeal Technology.

The American Society of ExtraCorporeal Technology warmly welcomes our colleagues from Downunder. We look forward to a long successful partnership as we strive to foster improved patient care and safety by expanding and disseminating the published knowledge related to ExtraCorporeal Technology.

“None of us is smarter than all of us.”

—Japanese Proverb