Harkness Project Title: Addressing Multi-morbidity in Health Care Quality Improvement

Mentors: Eric C. Schneider, M.D., and Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D.

Placement: Harvard School of Public Health

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Jako Burgers, M.D., Ph.D., a 2008–09 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is a practicing physician and senior researcher at the IQ healthcare, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, where his research interests focus on the development and dissemination of clinical practice guidelines to improve quality of patient care. He is also Senior Consultant at the Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement CBO, and is Chair and founding member of the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N), an organization that works toward the development, adaptation and implementation of clinical practice guidelines and has a membership of 84 organizations from 37 countries. Previous positions include staff member at the Dutch College of General Practitioners and assistant reader at Free University Amsterdam. Burgers has authored over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles on guidelines development and effectiveness in clinical practice, with publications in the Netherlands Journal of Medicine, Lancet, International Journal of Quality in Health Care, and the British Journal of General Practice. He holds a medical degree from the Free University Amsterdam and a Ph.D. from the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, where his dissertation, "Quality of Clinical Practice Guidelines," received the CARE award in 2002.

Project: Jako Burgers focused on the quality and coordination of care for patients with multiple conditions.  He conducted a secondary analysis of 2008 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults on whether patient-reported experiences of care coordination differ based on the number and type of patients’ chronic conditions.  He also examined the extent to which clinical practice guidelines for prevalent chronic conditions address co-morbidities.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Head, Department of Guideline Development and Research, Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG), 2011

Current Position: Head, Department of Guideline Development and Research, Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG) (Updated July 2011)

E-mail: j.burgers@cbo.nl

Harkness-Related Publications

Gauld R, Blank R, Burgers J, Cohen AB, Dobrow M, Ikegami N, Kwon S, Luxford K, Millett C, Wendt C., “The World Health Report 2008: Primary Healthcare: How wide is the gap between its agenda and implementation in 12 High-Income Health Systems?” Healthcare Policy. 7(3). 2012.

Burgers JS, Voerman GE, Grol R, Faber MJ, Schneider EC. “Quality and Coordination of Care for Patients with Multiple Conditions: Results from an International Survey of Patient Experience.” Evaluation & the Health Professions. 2010; 33(3):343-64

Singer SJ, Burgers J, Friedberg M, Rosenthal MB, Leape L, Schneider E. "Defining and Measuring Integrated Patient Care: Promoting the Next Frontier in Health Care Delivery.” Med Care Res Rev. 2010 Jun 16. [Epub ahead of print]