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.
Appreciation of systems is fundamental to the science of improvement. But when you’re a frontline worker with a close-up view of one small part of the health system, it can be hard to see the big picture. In this new video short from Lloyd Provost, co-author of the legendary Improvement Guide, you’ll learn how visual tools such as flow charts can help reveal the larger systems in which we live and work.
Quality improvement (QI) methods have spread rapidly through health care in the last two decades, and health professions schools are integrating this training more and more each year. But the field of public health has been much slower to adopt quality methodology, even as more health systems are taking on population health through the IHI Triple Aim. In this new blog post, Erica Bridge, BPH, MA, former Open School Chapter Leader at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, explains why she believes QI is necessary, yet undervalued, in public health.
If you can believe it, a new report from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) found there were fewer black men in medical school in 2014 than in 1978. “Diversity among doctors is important for patient health,” says NPR’s Shots. “People are more likely to follow doctors’ directions on things like medication or exercise if they can identify with them.” The good news is that the AAMC report found growth in applicants in every other minority group — including Asians, Hispanics, and black women. Read the NPR article to learn more.
Community Updates
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Saint Michaels Medical Center, New Jersey, USA
Abdul Rahman Al Mishari Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Applications for the 2016 Telluride Patient Safety Student Summer Camps — taking place in June and July in Napa, California; Telluride, Colorado; and at the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Maryland — are due December 11, 2015. Why go to safety summer camp? “The immersive experience,” says Open School Faculty Advisor Wendy Madigosky, “enables students to have a change in how they feel about the care that they’re providing.” Still need convincing? Accepted students will receive a full scholarship, including travel and accommodations. For more information, click here.
