EVANSTON, Ill. - Jan. 18, 2007 - American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) announced today that it has joined the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) 5 Million Lives Campaign, an initiative to dramatically transform the quality of healthcare by improving the safety and effectiveness of our nation’s healthcare delivery system. IHI expects to engage more than 4,000 hospitals in the campaign, having significant impact on the care provided by the more than 85 percent of all physicians certified by an ABMS member board.

“ABMS stands behind IHI’s continued efforts to make sure Americans are receiving the highest level of care,” said Stephen H. Miller, MD, MPH, president and chief executive officer of ABMS. “We are confident that through this campaign and the collective efforts of the healthcare industry, we can prevent avoidable patient safety problems.”

The 5 Million Lives Campaign asks hospitals to improve the care they provide by adopting one of 12 improvements in care identified by the initiative in order to protect patients from five million incidents of medical harm over the next two years. It represents a continuation of the IHI 100,000 Lives Campaign, the largest improvement effort undertaken in recent history by the healthcare industry. In the first campaign, 3,100 hospitals reported a reduction of inpatient deaths by 122,000 in 18 months.

“No one in healthcare can feel comfortable with the magnitude of infections, adverse drug events and other complications that hospital patients endure.  Dozens of organizations and programs are now working to reduce that toll,” said Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, president and chief executive officer of IHI. “This Campaign joins those efforts, and seeks leverage and scale that our nation has never had before to make care safe – everywhere. We can, and we will, equip all willing healthcare providers with the tools they need to make the motto, ‘First, do no harm,’ a reality.” The new Campaign was formally unveiled on December 12, 2006 and has been endorsed by the American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Nurses Association (ANA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

About IHI
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is a not-for-profit organization leading the improvement of healthcare throughout the world. Founded in 1991 and based in Cambridge, MA, IHI is a catalyst for change, cultivating innovative concepts for improving patient care and implementing programs for putting those ideas into action. Thousands of healthcare providers, including many of the finest hospitals in the world, participate in IHI’s groundbreaking work. For more information, visit www.ihi.org.

About ABMS
The American Board of Medical Specialties is the preeminent medical organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. It assists its 24 member boards in their efforts to develop and implement educational and professional standards for the evaluation and certification of physician specialists. ABMS Member Boards provide physician certification information to ABMS for its certification verification service programs. ABMS is recognized by the key healthcare credentialing accreditation entities as a primary equivalent source of board certification data for medical specialists. Visit www.abms.org or call (847) 491-9091.