In February 2007 the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Physicians (ACP), and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) published their landmark Joint Principles on the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). This approach promises comprehensive primary care for children, youth, and adults in a partnership between individual patients and a team of health care professionals at the practice level. The team coordinates care across all elements of the health care system. Increased quality, patient safety, use of technology, performance incentives, accountability, and patient-centeredness are all hallmarks of the medical home model.

By 2010 the medical home model had become one of the most talked-about concepts in health care and the rising star of health care reform and its newest concept, the Accountable Care Organization or ACO. The model was also evolving, with different iterations in the make-up of the medical home team, the way in which care coordination is managed, and the relationship with other members of the "medical neighborhood" -- behavioral health, oral health, social services, and specialty and inpatient care. Even the name was evolving, with "health homes" and "advanced primary care" now used to describe some patient-centered medical home models.

Now it is 2016, and the patient-centered medical home is firmly embedded in the U.S. healthcare landscape. The concept of value-based purchasing, with its demand for documented quality, efficiency, and patient engagement, has been not just embraced but championed by CMS.  This is moving the market, and the medical home is the critical foundation of the new delivery models.  The Eighth National Medical Home Summit, co-hosted by the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative,  will look at how advanced medical homes fit into this new value-based world and will bring together the leading authorities and practitioners in the medical home field to discuss how it is working, what we are learning from the research, where it has proven outcomes,  where it needs improvement, and what issues and challenges lie ahead.

The Summit begins with a morning-long preconference featuring leading researchers who will describe their recent work and what we are learning about medical homes in solo or collaborative models.  The plenary sessions feature presentations by the leading figures in the medical home movement, the three most critical organizations concerned with patient and family engagement, and successful health care system and ACO models.  Two concurrent sessions on Day 2 highlight innovative local models and new roles and payers in medication management, respectively. Finally, the medical home training program associated with the Summit allows for a deeper dive into the subject matter and includes preconference readings, an online course, and an online exam as well as required participation in the preconference and the main Summit.  Candidates earn a certificate of completion with a score of 70% or better on the final exam.