As Chief Health Officer and Plan Medical Director of HealthPartners, Dr. Isham is responsible for quality, utilization management, health promotion and disease prevention, research, and health professionals’ education.
He is active in strategic planning and policy issues. He is a founding board member of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, a collaborative of Twin Cities medical groups and health plans that is implementing clinical practice guidelines in Minnesota. Dr. Isham is a past member of the board of directors of the American’s Health Insurance Plans and he is currently on the board of directors of the Alliance of Community Health Plans. He is past co-chair and current member of the National Committee for Quality Assurances (NCQA) Committee on Performance Measurement which oversees the Health Plan quality measurement standards. He has served on the Center for Disease Controls (CDC) Task Force on Community Preventive Services and on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Qualitys (AHRQ) Advisory Board for the National Guideline Clearinghouse. He has served on the Institute of Medicines Board on Population Health and Public Health Services and chaired the committee that authored the report Priority Areas for National Action, Transforming Health Care Quality.
In 2003 Dr. Isham was appointed as a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies of Science in recognition of his contributions to the work of the Institute of Medicine. Epidemic of Care, published in April 2003, with co-author George Halvorson, is Dr. Isham’s examination of the impending health care crisis with suggestions on ways to solve it.
Prior to his current position, Dr. Isham was medical director for MedCenters Health Plan in Minneapolis and executive director for University Health Care, Inc., in Madison, Wisconsin. His practice experience as a primary care physician included eight years at the Freeport Clinic in Freeport, Illinois, and three and one-half years as clinical assistant professor in Medicine at the University of Wisconsin.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Zoology and Master of Science in preventive medicine/administrative medicine, University of Wisconsin Madison; Doctor of Medicine, University of Illinois; internship and residency in internal medicine, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, Wisconsin. Bachelor of Arts in Zoology and Master of Science in preventive medicine/administrative medicine, University of Wisconsin Madison; Doctor of Medicine, University of Illinois; internship and residency in internal medicine, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, Wisconsin.
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