About Delfini

Delfini Group is a public service entrepreneurship founded to help solve the little known societal problem of medical misinformation which frequently results from lack of awareness and skills in the conduct and reporting of research and in evaluating scientific information. Delfini is dedicated to helping individuals and organizations learn and apply the concepts, methods, processes, skills and tools of evidence- and value-based clinical improvement to make practice change and achieve improved medical decision-making, outcomes and value.

Michael Stuart MD and Sheri Ann Strite are clinical quality improvement practitioners, facilitators, educators and trainers, combining academic experience with decades of practical experience. They have expertise in clinical improvement methods, scientific review of medical technologies, development of clinical guidelines and other medical content, health care communications, facilitating evidence-based working groups such as pharmacy and therapeutics committees and in assisting healthcare leaders achieve quality. They are especially known for their training programs in critical appraisal of the medical literature. They have worked with a vast variety of individuals and organizations. They have contributed to text books, and their work and commentaries have been published in respected journals.

The Delfini Mission Statement
To improve health care quality and use of resources by assisting medical leaders, health care professionals and others interested in and affected by health care decisions by —

• Bringing science into medical practice in an easy-to-understand way.
• Using simplified methods to help navigate the complexities of such areas as evidence-based medicine, clinical improvement and other topics.
• Building competencies and confidence in improving medical care through our consultations, training programs and tools.
• Providing inspiration to others to improve medical care and help bring about needed change.

Dr. Mike Stuart is a family physician and has been on the clinical faculty of the University of Washington’s School of Medicine since 1975 where he teaches the EBM component of a certificate program on healthcare quality. Prior to founding Delfini, he was the director of the Department of Clinical Improvement and Education at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, Washington (1984-2002) where he led development of more than 35 evidence-based clinical guidelines and other clinical improvements. His clinical guideline work has received praise from prominent health care leaders such as David Eddy MD and Don Berwick MD and clients such as the Health Ministry of New Zealand and the US Navy’s Bureau of Medicine. He also chaired both the Group Health Pharmacy & Therapeutics and Medical Technology Assessment Committees. Full Bio for Michael E. Stuart, MD

Sheri Strite is principal and managing partner for Delfini for which she initiated many health care improvement strategies, tools and training programs and provides training. Prior to her work with Delfini, Ms. Strite was with the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, where she taught faculty, community physicians, residents, and medical and pharmacy students. She also served as a member of the UCSD Family Medicine Research Leaders and faculty for their Research Fellowship in the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine (2002–2005). Prior to UCSD, Ms. Strite worked in clinical improvement, education and research at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, Washington (1977-2002) where she held various positions and leadership roles including research management and administration. Full Bio for Sheri Ann Strite

Notable

• Qualis Health to assist, along with the American Medical Association (AMA), in evaluating and recommending performance measures for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
• State of Washington Department of Health and Human Services (DSHS) to train their staff and clinicians who conduct medical necessity and other reviews including staff from the Health Care Authority
• McKesson for evidence-based training, launching their Evidence-based Medicine Initiative and providing intensive training in critical appraisal
• Health plans such as WellPoint Rx and The Regence Group as trainers of pharmacy & therapeutics committee leaders and members, medical policy leaders and staffers
• American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) to conduct their first ever national performance measures training which achieved a 5.0 out of 5.0 score
• American Academy of Neurology to provide tools and a basis for web-based self-learning modules
• MD Anderson Cancer Center as internal faculty for their Clinical Effectiveness & Safety Program and Salem Hospital for their Physician Leadership Institute
• Kaiser Permanente groups for training in evidence-based medicine and for facilitating guideline development and quality improvement projects

Other —

• Delfini’s three-part series on "The Evidence-based Organization" opened the January 2005 edition of the American College of Physician Executive's "The Physician Executive, Journal of Medical Management”
• Extensive experience with medical technology assessment and pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committees and staff, including the authoring of a chapter on formulary management for the textbook, Evidence-based Pharmacotherapy
• Stuart is a contributing author to the textbook, Evidence-Based Clinical Practice: Concepts and Approaches
• Stuart and Strite have served on pharmacy and therapeutics committees and have published guidance on formulary management
• Stuart and Strite are associate editors for DynaMed, EBSCO Publishing and peer reviewers/guest editors for the California Pharmacist Journal
• Delfini has also taught evidence-based medicine to consumers, employers, administrative law judges and architects with an interest in evidence-based design (EvBD)
• Recognized in the highly praised, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, Bloomsbury USA; 1 edition (September 18, 2007), by Shannon Brownlee

Topics
Topics upon which Delfini has written and taught include evidence-based medicine, inappropriate variation, searching techniques, critical appraisal of medical literature, evidence-based committee processes, evidence-based content development, technology assessment, population-based care, projecting economic and health outcomes, performance measurement, patient decision-making, facilitating provider behavior change, physician and patient communications, developing and implementing clinical practice guidelines, and creating information, decision and action aids for clinical care.

Audiences
Audiences include policy makers, medical leaders & administrators, health plan administrators, physicians, clinical pharmacists, nurses, medical and pharmacy residents and students, professors, evidence-based medicine consultants, clinical content developers, consumers, businesses, legal professionals, researchers, medical manufacturers, architects and others.

Download Delfini-in-Brief