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.
Medicine holds incredible power to save lives. But what happens when the risks to health are outside the scope of health care? In this video, Aswita Tan-McGrory, Deputy Director of the Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, tells a powerful story of the impact of home environments on health. She describes “the limits of medicine” and challenges health systems to look outside their walls to improve health outcomes for their patients. Learn more in our course TA 101: Introduction to Population Health.
Is it possible to improve health care quality while lowering costs? Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, offer one model in which health care providers work together to improve the health of a specific population while controlling costs. In a recently published article, Open School Chapter Leader Faheem Ahmed, IHI CEO and President Maureen Bisognano, and former Partners Healthcare CEO Gary Gottlieb make the case that ACOs can pay a pivotal role in improving England’s National Health Service, drawing on the impact of ACOs in the United States as a result of the Affordable Care Act. How might ACOs fair in England? Read the full article here.
Get in on the ground floor: The first Latin American Forum on Quality and Safety will take place in São Paulo, Brazil, August 13–16 and offers special opportunities for Open School students. An August 13 networking event for students, residents, and faculty will provide a unique chance to meet new friends and colleagues, explore lessons learned from improvers around the world, and walk away with valuable resources from the Open School. Find student scholarships and register for the Forum here.
Whether you’ve achieved great success or have learned difficult lessons, share your real-life experiences improving patient care at IHI’s 17th Annual Summit on Improving Patient Care in the Office Practice and the Community, taking place March 20–22 in Orlando, Florida. Topics up for discussion include: understanding what matters to patients and families, joy in work, health equity, improving value and reducing cost, and staff engagement. Submit your speaker proposal by Friday, July 31.