How new pediatric programs take root and grow

A Health Podyssey

How do you take a good idea — like screening children to see if they're on a healthy developmental trajectory — and get that idea adopted by thousands of small separate pediatric practices spread across a state or the entire country?

The answer is collaboration and leadership.

Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) is a pediatric program run by the University of Vermont to help pediatric providers, payers, and policy makers navigate the complex health care ecosystem. It’s also the latest subject for Health Affairs’ Leading to Health Series.

Leading to Health focuses on transforming health systems and is published with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In this episode, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews journalist and Leading to Health author Rebecca Gale on what gives VCHIP a programmatic edge in implementing new health care programs — and how other states can consider and benefit from this approach.

Rebecca Gale is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Health Affairs, The Washington Post, Slate, and The New York Times.