The Harvard Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement (PHSI), part of a larger Interfaculty health policy initiative, is devoted to bringing Harvard's enormous research and teaching potential to bear on solving the most complex, pressing health care issues of our time. This quarterly e-newsletter will provide a glimpse of some of our current and future work. We hope that it stems further thought, discussion and interest in the issues covered and we encourage your feedback. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.phsi.harvard.edu.

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With the needs of emerging health care leaders in mind, PHSI launched the Project on Emerging Health Care Leadership in the fall of 2002. The first in a series of deliverables from this project, "A Guide to Business Careers in Healthcare", has just been released. A collection of essays based on in-depth interviews, this volume offers an intimate look at the careers of 19 senior leaders in business roles in health care. These leaders speak with remarkable honesty and candor about their careers, and thereby provide great insight to professionals on the potential paths to health care leadership.

A broader guide profiling 40 leaders from across the industry will be ready for distribution in late January. To receive a complete list of interviewees and learn how to order either volume (available free for Harvard students, and at nominal cost for others), email us at phsi@harvard.edu.

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Harvard Forums on Health: Improving Mental Health Care
On November 12, 2003, PHSI (in partnership with Health Affairs and The New America Foundation) sponsored a forum on improving mental health care with local partners and prominent researchers at UCLA. In an engaging interactive format, mental health experts, clinicians, and patients came together to discuss the indvidual and societal implications of mental illness as a chronic disease. The event - part of a series called the Harvard Forums on Health - was moderated by former presidential advisor and renowned journalist David Gergen.

Examining Other Paradigms Seminar Series: Safety in Health Care
As part of a seminar series dedicated to examining new paradigms from other industries, PHSI hosted Dr. Rene Amalberti - a global expert on human factors and safety - for an afternoon seminar on November 3, 2003. Dr. Amalberti shared his experiences in studying the similarities and differences in improving safety in industries including civil aviation, road traffic, and medicine. He then discussed the systemic barriers standing in the way of transferring lessons learned from these industries to health care. The next seminar, set to examine disruptive technologies and health care with Professor Clayton Christenson, will be held in February 2004. For more information on past or future seminars, please visit the New Paradigms Seminar Series project on the PHSI website. To be notified about upcoming seminars, please email us at phsi@harvard.edu.

The Effects of Caps on Malpractice Liability
PHSI has convened a small group of faculty and students at the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Medical School to engage in an objective review of data on the effectiveness of caps on malpractice liability. Drs. David Studdert and Michelle Mello will complete this study over the next 6 months and present their findings in both academic literature and in forms accessible to policy makers and leaders. For updates or to request additional information regarding this project, please visit our website at www.phsi.harvard.edu.

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For more information on the projects and events described in this newsletter, or to unsubscribe, please contact us at phsi@harvard.edu.