As an EMT in Woburn, MA, Jonathan Brach responds to medical emergencies every day. But his job driving an ambulance also puts him on the front lines of a public health crisis: texting and driving. “There are few things that annoy me more than seeing another driver looking at his or her cell phone instead of the road,” Jonathan writes in a blog post. Jonathan decided to take action to improve population health through the IHI Open School Change Agent Network (I-CAN). Next month, you can learn leadership skills as Jonathan did in the I-CAN course, Leadership and Organizing to Improve Population Health. This free, eight-week course teaches you new skills as you lead a project in your community to improve health. Apply by Tuesday, September 1, to take the course that runs from September 17–November 12, 2015.

Let’s face it: Medical residents are some of the busiest providers in health care. So how can they learn quality improvement while still mastering the clinical skills required in their incredibly stressful jobs? Here’s one idea: Spare them the lectures on the history of the Toyota Production System. In a new editorial in BMJ Quality & Safety, two physician authors argue that training on QI and Lean, the Toyota approach, must be hands-on and sensitive to demands on residents’ time. “Like clinical medicine, residents learn QI best through direct experience,” the authors write. Try out your own hands-on improvement project with the IHI Open School Practicum.