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NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery Doubles Publication Frequency
January 28, 2021
The mission of NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery is to accelerate the transformation of how health care is delivered. In its first year of publication, the peer-reviewed publication has become a must-read for many.
Starting with the January 2021 issue, the online journal has doubled its publication frequency. “We’re doing this in response to audience interest and to accommodate the large volume of high-quality manuscripts we’ve been receiving,” says Editorial Director Edward Prewitt.
NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery spotlights the most promising ideas for transforming health care delivery from experts around the world. Its audience includes clinicians, clinical leaders, health care executives, and researchers. From the start, the NEJM Catalyst journal has attracted many renowned authors. “We’re the second journal launched by NEJM Group in more than 200 years,” explains Prewitt. “But that halo effect lasts for only so long. Our emphasis on practical innovations resonates with readers and authors.”
Much of the focus during the last year has been on Covid-19, Prewitt says. “The pandemic has been like an earthquake for care delivery, so it’s been the backdrop of a lot of our articles, even if an article is not directly about Covid-19,” he says. Topics have ranged from the economic and clinical devastation suffered by provider organizations to lessons learned from the transition to telemedicine to best practices for getting patients with chronic illnesses back on track. A sampling of popular Covid-19–related NEJM Catalyst content includes;
- Creating the New Normal: The Clinician Response to Covid-19
- Where Are All the Patients? Addressing Covid-19 Fear to Encourage Sick Patients to Seek Emergency Care
- Building A Better Health Care System Post–Covid-19
- How South Korea Responded to the Covid-19 Outbreak in Daegu
NEJM Catalyst has maintained its focus on non-pandemic topics as well. Some of the most-read articles include:
- How Different Payment Models Support (or Undermine) a Sustainable Health Care System: Rating the Underlying Incentives and Building a Better Model
- Three Audacious Goals for Reinventing an Academic Medical Center
- Six Tests for Physicians and Their Leaders for the Decades Ahead
“This assortment of articles shows the breadth of Catalyst content — everything from leadership to payment models to health care technology. They are emblematic of our focus on practical, how-to content,” says Prewitt.
The NEJM Catalyst Insights Council, a group of executives, clinical leaders, and clinicians who monitor the pulse of health care delivery by participating in monthly surveys, has increased from 12,000 to over 16,000 members, with growing international participation from members in over 69 countries. “We have a large international readership because so many of our topics are global, such as patient engagement, improved outcomes, health care technology, and value-based care,” says Prewitt. Recent Insights Council reports have revealed that the majority of Council members do not believe the pandemic will be a tipping point for value-based care and that Covid-19 has exacerbated the longstanding problem of burnout among physicians and nurses.
NEJM Catalyst events will relaunch in 2021, after a hiatus due to the pandemic. Through keynote talks and moderated panels, the quarterly virtual events will address a common theme: Health Care in 2030. “We’ll be exploring which changes brought on by the pandemic and other disruptors will last, which won’t, and what health care delivery will look like in the coming years,” says Prewitt.
Thomas H. Lee, MD, MSc, editor-in-chief of NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, says that the past year has been a very mixed one for the health care industry. “The good news is that health care workers have really risen to the occasion and done an amazing job meeting the needs of patients and dealing with threats that were not completely understood. And they’ve done it with compassion — not worrying about the immediate financial consequences,” he says. “The bad news is that this has been financially catastrophic for virtually every health care organization, with the exception of the insurers, and the pandemic has revealed the weaknesses in the fee-for-service funding mechanism.”
Whatever the future holds, NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery will continue to present the very best ideas to improve care delivery around the world. Many institutions are already benefiting from full access to this new journal. If you haven’t spoken to us about purchasing a site license, we hope that you will consider doing so here. To find out how to gain access for your patrons, please contact us at institutionsales@nejm.org.
