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January 22, 2014
The IHI Open School is an innovative learning community where you can take free online courses, earn certificates, network with peers and experts, and gain confidence and skills in quality improvement and patient safety to change health care.
Jonathan Lichkus, an MD/MPH student in Boston, took the improvement knowledge he gained from the Open School courses and applied it to wait times at a local health center. In a new video, Jon and Jez-Marie Rodriguez, a medical assistant at the health center, talk about what made this Open School Practicum project so successful.
Jonathan’s posterboard depicting his successful project was on display at the 25th Annual IHI National Forum. Check it out here. Interested in learning more about the Practicum? Click here.
An article published in the January 2014 edition of South Dakota Medicine, the journal of the South Dakota State Medical Association, details a project conducted by members of the South Dakota Open School Chapter, including Midwest Regional Leader Ryan Miller. The project studied and guided the use of Open School online courses in quality and safety curricula across health disciplines in South Dakota. The conclusion? Open School courses “provide a simple, inexpensive, and effective method to implement quality and patient safety concepts within existing health professions curricula.” Read the full article here.
If you haven’t met Trevor Torres — the precocious, 17-year-old star of one of our most popular Open School videos — the idea of a “diabetes evangelist” probably won’t make a lot of sense. Most patients don’t look at a chronic disease as a blessing. They certainly don’t recommend it to their friends.
In this new interview with Trevor, he reminds us that every patient is different. He shares how, by respecting his individuality, his care team helped him turn a frustrating diagnosis into “one of the best things” to happen to him.
The next global Chapter call will be held on Wednesday, February 5, at 12 PM EST. Global Chapter calls are hosted each quarter by the IHI Open School Regional Leaders. These calls serve to highlight the work Chapters are doing around the world, orient new Chapters to the community, and answer questions about the work your Chapter is doing. During the February 5 call, we’ll cover succession planning, and hear from the University of South Carolina Chapter about how they handle their officer transitions and maintain momentum each year. All Chapter Leaders, members, and Faculty Advisors are invited to dial in and participate.
To connect to the call: Follow this link, enter your name and email address, click “Join Now,” and follow the instructions that appear on your screen. Email openschool@ihi.org with any questions.
In our latest blog post, we hear from Tomoko McGaughey and Kerry Campbell about their first event as leaders of a new Chapter at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia, Canada. “It was our first opportunity to expose the students of SFU and surrounding institutions to the principles of IHI,” they write, “and to show them how applying these principles can make a difference in the real world.” Read the blog post to learn more about their successful event.
