Most recently, Asim served as Director of the Urban Health Initiative at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he directed a key institutional initiative to improve health outcomes through strategic partnerships and lead several Medical Center departments and community partners to implement community-based models of practice.

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Another initiative will enable doctors to share medical images and records on Sprint phones while preserving patient privacy.

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The last time the question captured the nation's attention, the private sector won hands down: In 1994, a coalition of insurers and employers defeated President Clinton's health care reform initiative by tarring it as a bureaucratic nightmare that would lead to government rationing of medical services.

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The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies will also dedicate research funding for projects that support the BRAIN Initiative.

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Premier's Perinatal Safety Initiative has been working with hospitals, including Aurora West, in 12 states since 2006, training medical teams to follow protocols to prevent harm to mother and infant and respond rapidly in a delivery emergency.

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Efforts are under way in the U.S. to curb overuse of CT scanning in children, including the Image Gently initiative, launched in August 2009 and spearheaded by a coalition of health-care organizations dedicated to changing medical practice.

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