Board Votes to Make APEX Awards Annual Event Beginning in 2017

APA’s Board of Trustees agreed that an event involving presentation of the American Psychiatric Excellence (APEX) Awards, first held this past April, will continue as an annual event beginning in fall 2017.

At its meeting last month, which was held in conjunction with this year’s IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference, the Board approved a report from an Ad Hoc APEX Work Group recommending the event be held annually and involve recognizing contributions to improving access to excellent mental health care. The first APEX Awards were presented during the Stepping Up Summit in Washington, D.C., and focused on the theme that was central to the presidency of then-APA President Renȳe Binder, M.D.—the overrepresentation of mentally ill people in the nation’s jails and prisons (Psychiatric News, May 20).

The Ad Hoc APEX Work Group was charged to review whether APA should proceed with developing a second APEX event. Members of the work group were Binder (chair), Anita Everett, M.D., APA president-elect; Uyen-Khanh Quang-Dang, M.D., a member of the APA Foundation Board of Directors; Steven Sharfstein, M.D., former APA president; Dan Gillison, the new director of the APA Foundation; and Glenn O’Neal, director of APA’s Corporate Communications and Public Affairs.

Among the work group’s recommendations were that the Foundation should be involved in fundraising for the event and that the success of the event should be evaluated after at least three APEX Award events have taken place.

According to the work group report, the purpose of the APEX event should be presence, branding, and recognition. These goals will advance the work and reputation of the APA. There was also unanimous agreement that the APEX awards should no longer be attached to the Stepping Up Summit since the theme will change each year. The event will now take place in conjunction with APA’s September Component Meetings—when many psychiatrists and policymakers are in Washington, D.C.

In other business, Trustees approved a report by the Work Group on Communication to Members During APA Elections, which had been charged with looking at ways to improve member access to candidate information during APA elections. Among the recommendations made by the work group was to encourage and support a “centralized campaign/election website” that is easily accessible and visible from the APA homepage, with a clear and prominent election link. One click would bring members to an election section with information about any candidate they wish to learn about, according to the report.

The Board also approved a recommendation from the Budget and Finance Committee for a 2 percent inflationary increase—or an increase of $10—in Annual Meeting registration fees for full-time members. Small adjustments were also made to other meeting registration categories as well.

Additionally, Trustees voted to approve APA Publishing’s moving forward to launch an “open access” journal in 2017. This new online-only journal would be supported through fees paid by authors or the research funding agencies of studies accepted for publication. Open-access journals have become an established way of publishing, as medical and other organizations seek to diversify publishing beyond subscription-based journals. A search committee will be formed to select an editor for the journal, with an anticipated launch date of early 2018.

Grayson Norquist, M.D., chair of the Registry Oversight Group, spoke by phone about the progress APA is making on developing its national patient registry.

Health care patient registries—systems of data collection for tracking and evaluating outcomes among populations of patients—are increasingly viewed as vital to the goals of the so-called Triple Aim: improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction), improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of health care.

Registries are being developed by integrated and collaborative care networks to help them improve outcomes for the populations they treat. Some medical specialty groups have already developed or are in the midst of developing registries around the populations with the disorders treated by the respective specialty.

Development of a registry can assist members with meeting quality-reporting requirements for Medicare and Maintenance of Certification.

Norquist said psychiatrists are now being recruited to participate in the pilot, or proof-of-concept, phase, and the work group hopes to have the necessary 25 clinicians signed up for the registry by the end of 2016 to become a Qualified Clinical Data Registry certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Norquist also reported that the work group members have been divided into subgroups addressing such issues as quality measures, consent forms, the “architecture” of the registry, and research. ■

APA members can access archives of summaries of Board actions here.