Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 27, no. 1 (2008): 143-150 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.1.143 © 2008 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Interview

INTERVIEW

‘What’s The Ethics Of That?’ A Conversation With Thomas O. Pyle

Donald M. Berwick and Madge Kaplan

Thomas O. Pyle served in the top echelons of the Harvard Community Health Plan (HCHP) for nineteen years. In that time, HCHP became the largest health maintenance organization (HMO) in New England, and its reputation for innovation and entrepreneurship rose to the top ranks of the industry. HCHP pioneered the automated medical record, nurse practitioners, quality measurement, and sophisticated disease management. In this interview, Berwick and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Madge Kaplan explore Pyle’s background, his interpretation of HCHP’s evolution and eventual transition to a much different organization, and his recommendations for the future. At the time of this interview, Tom was suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, from which he died ten weeks later, 18 July 2007.

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