Hidden Barriers to Improvement in the Quality of Care

Abstract

The Shattuck Lecture is delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society. In the 111th lecture, Dr. Barbara McNeil discusses a core problem in health policy, the barriers to improvement in the quality of medical care. She focuses on two key impediments: uncertainty about which therapeutic and diagnostic interventions are actually effective, and cost pressures, which may result in the underuse of potentially valuable medical treatments and techniques.